GERMANYS 
FIGHTING 




ERNEST- 
HENDERSON 




()Op}Ti^htN 



JO 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 




Kaiser Wilhelm II 



GERMANY'S 
FIGHTING MACHINE 



Her Army, Her Navy, Her Ab'-skips, and 

Why She Arrayed Them Aga'mst the 

Allied Powers of Europe 



Bv 

ERNEST F. HENDERSON 

A idhor of 

Shout History of Germany 

HiSTORT OF Germany in the Middle Ages 

Blucher, Etc., Etc. 



WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS 



INDIANAPOLIS 

THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 



Copyright 11)14 
The Bobbs-Merrill Company 






/t-.^ 



CHARr.LS FRANCIS PRESS, NEW YORK 



OCT 26 1914 

©aA388039 



GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 



GERMANY'S 
FIGHTING MACHINE 



PART I 



THE WAR 



Rut a few weeks ago the author of this little book 
was in Germany studying the land and its institutions 
and full of admiration for its achievements in every 
field. Two days after he had taken ship for America 
Germany was practically at war with France and Rus- 
sia. England soon joined in the conflict, and the splen- 
did Hamburg liner on which the author was a passenger 
was a hunted thing on the ocean, owing her safety at 
last to a friendly fog. The great shipping company, 
with its nearly two hundred vessels, was out of the run- 
ning as a commercial enterprise, a symbol of the para- 
lyzed industries of the whole country. 

To the ordinary observer the conflict came like a bolt 
from the blue, but to the historian and to the man who 
reads the foreign newspapers it was not unexpected. 
The historians recognized that it was the appointed time 

1 



2 GERIVIANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

for a war between the great nations. The Franco- 
Prussian War took place forty-three years ago. When, 
since the days of the grandsons of Charlemagne, have 
the chief powers kept out of war for so long a time? In 
the ninth and tenth centuries the question of Lorraine 
was as troublesome as it has been in the nineteenth and 
twentieth; in the eleventh and twelfth an expedition 
against Italy was in the day's work of almost every 
German emperor; and England and Sicily were con- 
quered by the Normans; in 1215 took place the first gen- 
eral international battle; in 1250 the final expeditions 
against the Emperor Frederick II; in 1272 the Sicilian 
wars of the house of Anjou. The Guelphs and Ghibel- 
lines carry us on to the Hundred Years' War ; the Haps- 
burg struggles against Ital}^ and the Turks bring us 
down to the invasion of Italy by Charles VIII of 
France, to the campaigns of JNIaximilian, to the Field 
of the Cloth of Gold, to the religious wars of Charles V. 
Close on the heels of the latter struggles came not only 
the French religious wars but the invasion of England 
by Philip II's great armada. The Thirty Years' War, 
Louis XIV's war of conquest, the Spanish Succession^ 
the Silesian and the Seven Years' Wars fill the seven- 
teenth and eighteenth centuries; the Napoleonic, Cri- 
mean and Franco-Prussian Wars the nineteenth. Yes, 
it was time for a new struggle. 



THE WAR 8 

When a great and extraordinary event takes place it 
is easy, somewhere in the world, to point to omens and 
prophecies that have heralded it. But in the case of the 
present war we can see in the German newspapers how, 
from month to month of the present year, the struggle 
was felt to be more and more imminent and how Russia, 
the power that eventually precipitated the catastrophe, 
was felt to be the center of real danger. "In well- 
informed diplomatic circles," writes the Magdehurger 
Zeitung in January, 1914, "the impression can not be 
concealed that in Russia at present there prevails a thor- 
oughly hostile attitude to Germany and Austria-Hun- 
gary, and that the agitation in the czar's realm is greater 
even than during the last Balkan crisis. ... It looks 
as though Russia were preparing to make an extraordi- 
narily great show of strength against a specific, not far 
distant date." And the Deutsche Tageszeitung: "What 
is Russia's purpose in building a mighty fleet of dread- 
naughts for the Baltic? Surely not merely to coerce 
Sweden." Again the JNIadgeburg paper: "The Russian 
government, which already owes French capitalists 
twelve billions, has received a new loan of two billions 
five hundred millions, of which five million are yearly to 
be issued in Paris. This whole gigantic sum is exclu- 
sively to be spent for building strategic railways along 
the German-Russian boundary. . . . France com- 



4 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

pelled Russia to do this. The French general staff 
thinks that Russia, because of her clumsiness in mobil- 
izing, but especially for lack of tracks leading to the 
German frontier, will not be able, in a new war with 
Germany, to bring help to France in time. Russia has 
now fulfilled France's wishes in this regard. Thus does 
the Franco-Russian alliance, which of late seemed to be 
falling into oblivion, celebrate its resurrection." 

In February the Hallesche Zeitung writes: "To keep 
friendship with Russia is one of the chief aims of our 
foreign policy, but it is sometimes made very hard for 
us indeed. . . . They keep the peace because it is to 
the advantage of the czar's empire to do so ; but they are 
to be had for every combination directed against Ger- 
many." And the Dresdener Nachrichten: "The Rus- 
sian-German relations leave very much to be desired at 
the moment. The Russian government fails to show the 
least approachableness in foreign questions and Russian 
society and the press are in an extremely anti-German 
mood. Evidences of the same thing are to be seen in 
their attitude to Austria. . . . The Russian policy 
lets itself be taken more and more in tow by the French 
desires, and has nothing but polite speeches left for 
Germany." The Weser Zeitung finds the explanation 
of the hostility in Germany's efforts to help the Turks 
reorganize their army, and declares, "Here we have 




The Crown Prince and Crown Princess 




Prince Henry of Prussia, the Eiiiperor's Brother 



THE WAR o 

touched one of the weakest spots in Russia's world- 
poHcy, her endeavor to get to the ^Mediterranean." The 
Frdnkische Kuricr thinks that Russia intends to form 
a protectorate over the Balkan states as a mihtary 
weapon against Austria and her aUies: "The soul of 
this endeavor is the Russian diplomacy and the Servian 
minister-president, Pasitsch." The Dresdener Ajizeiger 
observes that the influence of the Pan-Slavist party over 
the Russian government is steadily growing and that 
the extraordinary activity in military matters ill suits 
the constant peace assurances: "The measures are 
pointed against Austria-Hungary." 

On jNIarch second an article in the Kolnische Zcitang 
aroused great excitement all over Germany. It declared 
that Russia was not yet in a position to supplement po- 
litical threats by military action, however much France 
might "rattle with the Russian saber." But in three 
years all the enormous preparations would be completed, 
and already "it is openly said even in official military 
periodicals, that Russia is arming for war against Ger- 
many." There is no immediate danger, the article con- 
tinued, but the legend of the historical German-Russian 
friendship had better be thrown to the dogs. 

The papers took different attitudes toward this arti- 
cle, but there were not wanting those who considered the 
warnings of the Kolnische Zeitung justified. General 



6 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

Keim, in the Tag, declares that the German-Russian 
boundary is one huge camp, that the underlying thought 
of the whole armament is an offensive war against Ger- 
many, that France had proceeded in the same way just 
before 1870 and that the recent visit to St. Petersburg 
of President Poincare and his chief of staff Joffre had 
not been merely a pleasure jaunt. Had not a French 
general, only last summer, declared in a treatise pub- 
lished anonymously that the tension between Russia and 
Austria was ground for a European war "perhaps in 
the near future"? And had not this French officer even 
gone so far as to spread the legend that in case of war 
Germany would disregard the neutrality of Belgium 
and Luxemburg in order to be able to envelop the 
French left wing? 

Several of the JNIarch newspapers bring the Russian 
hostility into connection with the commercial treaty that 
has only about two j'^ears more to run. Russia, by mak- 
ing a bold front, can gain from Germany better terms 
than she has had in the past. "Russia, with her military 
preparations," writes the Pester Lloijd, "wishes to put 
Austria and Germany under military pressure in order 
to achieve diplomatic successes and harm her neiglibors 
economically." The idea that France is behind it all 
crops out repeatedly. The Neue Preussische Zeitung 
speaks of the pressure "ever stronger, that the French 



THE WAR 7 

need for revenge is exercising on the Russian ally and 
debtor." The Hannoverisclie Courier accuses the 
French press of having first caused the agitation of 
public opinion in Russia, on which it afterward com- 
ments as so remarkable. As far back as March 10th, 
1913, the Kolnische Zeitung had written: "Never was 
our relation to our western neighbor so strained as to- 
day, never has the idea of vengeance shown itself so 
openly and never has it been made so evident that in 
France the Russian alliance, the English friendship, are 
claimed only for the purpose of reconquering Alsace- 
Lorraine. In whatever corner of the world the flame 
starts up it is quite certain that we shall have to cross 
swords with France. When that will be, no one can telL" 
The Russian military preparations cause the German 
papers much concern in the month of April also. The 
Vossische Zeitung considers them a gigantic bluff, and 
declares that they have been worth millions to the Rus- 
sian government. "For only because France thinks 
that in Russia she possesses an ally ready for war has 
she heaped billions and billions on her in the form of 
loans. . . . That the latest French loans to Russia 
were accompanied by instructions seriously to take up 
the anti-Austrian and anti-German preparations no one 
doubts. Just as little is it doubted that Pan-Slavism is 
not pleased with the latest changes in the Balkans or that 



8 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

the freedom of the Dardanelles and the seizure of Con- 
stantinople still present themselves as the goal of Rus- 
sian policy. Hatred of the Germans is increasing. 
. . . One thing is certain: Russia is arming to a gi- 
gantic extent. She wishes to throw a heavy weight into 
the scale of the national quarrels. Germany and Aus- 
tria have every reason to he on their guard." The 
Allgemeine Zeitung, of Chemnitz, writes that "The 
goals of French and Russian policy are unattainable 
without world-shattering callings-to-account," and the 
Wcser Zeitung, after speaking of Pan-Slavism as 
threatening the existence of the Austrian-Hungarian 
monarchy, finally exclaims, "It neither can nor should 
be concealed that if — which God forbid! — this direction 
gain the upper hand in Russian politics it would mean 
the very war-danger against which we sought and found 
refuge in the Triple Alliance." 

The newspapers of INIaj^ have a somewhat calmer 
tone than those of INIarch and April. "There is, to be 
sure," writes the Tag, "danger for peace in the possibil- 
ity that the anti-German tendency in Russia may prove 
so strong that the government will not be able to check 
it. Another danger lies in the relations of Russia and 
Austria. . . . Although there is much talk to the ef- 
fect that we shall once more be compelled to fight for our 
national existence, it is not absolutely necessary that 




The Unworldly Kaiseriii as tlie Protectress of the Fatherless 




Princess Victoria Louise, the Emperor's Only Daughter 



THE WAR 9 

such a war shall come." On the other hand. Admiral 
Breusing, in the Tdgliche Rundschau of May the sev- 
enth, writes: "The striving of the Slavic and Mongo- 
lian races to extend their power and possessions will 
surely lead to an encounter with the German race." The 
Rheinisch-Westphdlische Zeitung declares of France 
that "public sentiment in military and political circles 
has long gone over from the defensive to the offensive. 
Apparently the aim is to create a situation where Ger- 
many will have to choose between receding or attack- 
ing." The Dresdener Anzeiger, too, thinks that the "re- 
lations between Germany and France give the key to 
the grouping of the European powers," and the Berliner 
Tagehlatt says, "The future and salvation of Europe 
and its culture lies solely in a German-French-English 
rapprochement; that alone will guarantee the world- 
peace." Toward the end of the month the Dresdener 
Anzeiger writes: "The German-Russian relations have 
latterly taken a remarkable change for the worse. Cer- 
tainly the nationalistic elements in Russia are once more 
conspicuously active. . . . Should the whole mass of 
the Russian people once become conscious of its nation- 
ality the world will see the most mighty movement both 
as regards extent and elemental intensity. . . . For 
Russia, Pan-Slavism is the idea of the Russian leader- 
ship over all Slavs." 



10 GERMAXY'S FIGHTIXG MACHINE 

Already in INIay, more than two months before there 
is a sign that the conflict is at hand, doubts begin to be 
expressed whether Italy's alliance would be of any value 
in case of war. The Berlin Neueste Nachrichtcn has to 
acknowledge that as far as Austria is concerned the alli- 
ance is "more a matter of the intellect than of the heart ;" 
while the Rheiniscli-W estphdlische Zeitung reports on 
May twelve that "in more than ten years such a sense- 
less agitation against Austria has not been seen in 
Italy. . . . The Italian government is by no means 
master of the difficult situation in which it is placed 
by the demonstrations of protest against Austria-Hun- 
gary. . . . Were war to break out to-day the easily 
excited Italian people would compel any government 
of theirs, however friendly to the Triple Alliance, to 
declare against Austria-Hungary/^ 

The nearer we approach to the crisis the more serious 
is the situation regarded by the better newspapers. The 
Neue Preussische Zeitung in June tells of the surpris- 
ing spirit of sacrifice there is in France and of the quiet 
efforts that are being made to strengthen the army: "If 
the revenge cries have almost ceased that does not in the 
least mean that the idea has been given up ; on the con- 
trary, they already reckon on the war as on a sure thing." 
Of the Russian military preparations, the Vienna Neue 
Freie Presse writes on June twelve : "About two months 



THE WAR 11 

aero it became known that Russia had set aside two bun- 
dred sixteen million kronen (a krone is about a franc) 
for military exercises and especially for a 'trial-mobili- 
zation.' The great amount of this sum will be realized 
when one remembers that Austria spends about ten md- 
lions for all of its military exercises put together. Un- 
der the harmless title of 'trial-mobilization' and the still 
more harmless one of 'exercises for the reserves' Russia, 
then, for a period of six weeks, is placing its giant army 
practically on a war-footing. Think of 1,800,000 men 
holding military exercises at a time when Austria has 
200,000, Germany from 300,000 to 400,000 trained men 
at her immediate disposal! Whether it be intentional or 
not this implies so imminent a threat that the neighbors 
will need the greatest 'cold-bloodedness' to allow these 
'military exercises' to pass without friction. These ex- 
ercises signify the most colossal endangering of the 
peace that was ever attempted under the form of a 
periodically recurring measure of organization, and it 
would not be surprising if all those who long for a 
peaceful turn of political affairs were to be completely 
embittered. . . . To add to this dark aspect conies 
the relatively enormous credit demanded hy the Servian 
military administration— 123,000,000. It is as much in 
proportion as though Austria were to demand a billion 
and a half. Since 1908 Servia has been arming uninter- 



12 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

ruptedly, and now again spends this sum on military 
purposes the tendency of which practically amounts to 
a direct threatening of her neighbors." The Hallesche 
Zeitung on the twenty-third of June discusses the vari- 
ous alliances: "Originally the Russian-French alliance 
was a militarj^ convention, in the last few months there 
has been added a naval agreement. It is desired to enter 
with united forces into the great decisive struggle for 
the division of the world. Russia wants elbow-room as 
far as the North Atlantic Ocean and the Southern Bal- 
tic, besides free entry into the INIediterranean." 

I have quoted all these newspaper extracts because 
they seem to me absolutely indicative of the sentiment 
that prevailed in Germany just before the war broke 
out, whether that sentiment be based on correct impres- 
sions or not. We have the Russian side of it in an ar- 
ticle written by Professor JNIaxim Kowaleski, for the 
Frankfurtej' Zeitung: "In Russia people believe that 
Germany and Austria are arming against Russia, in 
Germany and Austria they take for granted that the 
opposite is the case." 

To the unprejudiced observer it looks very nuich as 
though Servia, thinking her hour had come and feeling 
sure of Russia's support, had instigated the murder of 
the heir to the Austrian throne with the deliberate inten- 
tion of starting a great conflagration. The preliminary 





General von Heeringen 



General von Eichhorn 








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General von Biilow 



General von Prittwitz 



THE WAR 13 

inquiry into the matter, which was carried on very de- 
hberately by Austria, with no sensational charges or 
accusations, revealed a great plot reaching to the very 
steps of the Servian throne. Around that throne, as the 
world well knows, were the men who had deliberately 
murdered their own previous king and queen and who 
had been rewarded with high positions for their share in 
that dark transaction. It was proved to Austria's satis- 
faction — and she had so much to lose by a war of ag- 
gression that no ulterior motive could have influenced 
her— that the royal Servian arsenal had provided the 
weapons of death and that a high official in the army had 
been directly concerned. Servia's attitude during the 
preliminary investigation had been provocative. Then 
Austria hurled her ultimatum. 

It was an unheard-of ultimatum — that much an Aus- 
trian friend acknowledged to me at the time. But, he 
added, the whole situation was equally unheard of. In 
Germany, except in the ranks of the social democrats, 
who glory in having no national sentiments, Austria's 
act met with the most complete approval. Truth to tell, 
no one had expected such firmness and decision. The 
seriousness of the matter was not for a moment over- 
looked. In my own immediate neighborliood and, I 
imagine, from end to end of Germany, the first impulse 
on hearing the news was to sing national hymns. One 



14 GERMAXY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

heard them throughout that whole night — especially the 
solemn ''Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser" and "Deutscli- 
landj Deutschland ilber alles" There was a resigned 
feeling, too, a feeling that Servia had been such a men- 
ace since 1908 that the time had come when something 
must be done. My Austrian friend believed that the 
powers would sympathize with his country's desire to 
chastise a band of assassins ; that the Russian czar espe- 
cially would never take sides with regicides ; that Eng- 
land would see fair play. 

To blame the German emperor for what followed is 
the attitude of the uninformed. Germany has foreseen 
the struggle, as our extracts from the newspapers show, 
but her one idea has been self-defense. The worst that 
can be said of her is that her wonderful prosperity has 
made her a little boastful and that she has talked too 
much about her share in world politics and her own 
"place in the sun." That indeed was an unfortunate 
remark of his imperial majesty. In general, however, 
he has honestly tried to keep the peace, and that Ger- 
many, with her blooming trade, her model educational 
system and her splendid fleet and army should have a 
larger voice in the affairs of nations was not an unrea- 
sonable aim. Those who accuse her of greed for terri- 
tory should look at the history of their own country and 
see if they are entitled to throw stones. Nor should they 



THE WAR 15 

attribute her recent army-increase to a mere spirit of 
aggression. So hemmed in is Germany, so exposed are 
her frontiers in every direction, that she can not help 
taking alarm at the movements of her neighbors. Ac- 
tually touching her borders are nations with a total pop- 
ulation more than doubling her own, not to speak of 
England with her enormous fleet. 

England of late has stood for the restriction of arma- 
ments provided her own naval superiority be preserved 
in the present proportions. Germans believe, probably 
falsely, that before making such a proposition England 
hastily ordered the laying of the keels of three new bat- 
tle-ships which in the ordinary course of events would not 
have been begun until later. At any rate England leads 
in the matter of supplying other countries with deadly 
instruments of war and her attitude is not unlike that of 
her own rich beer-brewing families to the temperance 
question. They preach against the use of alcohol, but 
go on deriving their income from it. The largest fac- 
tory of Whitehead torpedoes is at Fiume, in Austria; 
Armstrong and Vickers have branches in Italy and sup- 
ply that government with naval guns; while the British 
Engineers' Association, with a capital of $350,000,000, 
is endeavoring to corner the trade of the world in fire- 
arms. England introduced dreadnaughts and not only 
builds them for herself but also furnishes them on de- 



16 GERMAXY'S FIGHTIXG MACHINE 

mand to Japan and South America. With a cannon 
factory on the Volga and an arsenal equipped by Arm- 
strong and Vickers on the Golden Horn, England has 
fairly fattened of late on war. Bj^ building the first 
dreadnaught, indeed, she did herself a poor service. 
Previously Germany was out of the running as regards 
the number of ships; now, where only dreadnaughts 
count, she is becoming a good second. Was there not 
something more than naivete in Sir Edward Grey's 
serious proposal that Germany and England should re- 
strict the number of their battle-ships but always pre- 
serve the proportion of ten to six in England's favor? 
We have here, I think, the whole gist of tlie differences 
between the two countries. England has steadily pre- 
served her attitude of superiority everywhere its basis 
was disappearing. She has been jealous of Germany's 
commerce, of her colonial progress. These Germans are 
to England upstarts who need to be kept in their place 
and are not to be allowed to have a word in the larger 
world-policies. Almost every Englishman feels that a 
German is his social inferior. Such assumptions pro- 
voke bumptiousness and self-assertion, which, I do not 
deny, have at times been evidenced. Just before this 
war broke out, indeed, the feeling of mutual antagonism 
seemed to be lessening. The English fleet was wel- 




The Kaiser witli the Biirgemeister of Aix-la-Chapelle on tlie Baleony of the Town Hall 




The Emperor at Maneuvers 





Duke Albert of Wiirttemberg 



Prince Rnpprecht of Bavaria 




Grand Duke Frederick II of Baden 



THE WAR 17 

coined at Kiel, the English trade delegation in Berlin. 
The press of both countries had softened and sweetened. 
As for England's present alliance with Russia against 
Germany, it is the most monumental act of folly in 
modern history. Has Britannia been attacked by sclero- 
sis? At home a maudlin sentiment keeps her from en- 
forcing obedience to her laws and abroad she allows her 
real enemies to pull her about by the nose. It is as 
though in the middle ages a Henry or an Edward had 
joined hands with a Genghis Khan or a Timour the Tar- 
tar. Can England gain anything whatever by humili- 
ating Germany and furthering Pan-Slavism? A little 
commercial advantage, possibly, though America will 
be correspondingly strengthened and the final result will 
be no better. Britannia, wake up! It is less far from 
the JNIediterranean to the Atlantic than it is from the 
Black Sea to the ^lediterranean. Gibraltar will soon be 
as irksome to Pan- Slavism as are now the forts on the 
Dardanelles. Your own race is made up mainly of 
Angles and Saxons — all your ideals, all your real in- 
terests are far closer to those of the Germans than they 
are to those of the Russians. The time may come, and 
very soon, when you are only too glad to throw yourself 
around Germany's neck and beg her aid in opposing the 
hordes from the East. In Russia's wake are your allies. 



18 GERMAXY'S FIGHTIXG MACHINE 

the Japanese, who now for the first time have taken a 
hand in European affairs. Japan has been likened by 
a bright American girl to a man who has never been in- 
vited to dinner in certain circles but who at last has in- 
vited himself and simply can not be turned out of the 
house. 

Germany, though drawn into the matter merely by 
the plain terms of her alliance with Austria, stands vir- 
tually alone, for Italy is faithless and Austria, as usual, 
is only half prepared. We may see a recurrence of 
those exciting days when for seven years Frederick the 
Great of Prussia — of a Prussia less than half the size 
that it is now — held his own not only against the great 
powers of Europe but against the rest of Germany as 
well. The help that he had from England was not 
greater than may be expected from Austria to-day, and 
even the English deserted him at last. Again and again 
Frederick risked, even as our contemporary Hohenzol- 
lern is likely to do, le tout pour Ic tout. And like Fred- 
erick, I think that William, because of better equip- 
ment, better discipline and better strategy, is likely to 
prevail even over the many millions arrayed against him. 

England to-day throws the whole blame for the ter- 
rible war on Germany, who was lukewarm, so England 
declares, in counseling Austria not to let her strained 
relations with Servia develop into war; and in the Eng- 



THE WAR 19 

lish press at least there are no words too scathing for the 
violation by Germany of Belgium neutrality. The av- 
erage Englishman, I am sure, considers that the reason 
for England joining in the struggle. Yet what are we 
to think of Sir Edward Grey's own words in the "Cor- 
respondence respecting the European Crisis" laid before 
the Houses of Parliament and received here from Lon- 
don August twenty-fifth. 

July 31. — The German ambassador asked me to urge the Russian 
government to show good-will in the discussions and to suspend their 
military preparations. ... I informed the German ambassa- 
dor that, as regards military preparations, I did not see how Russia 
could be urged to suspend them unless some limit were put by 
Austria to the advance of her troops into Servia. 

August 1. — I told the German ambassador to-day ... if 
there were a violation of the neutrality of Belgium by one combatant 
while the other respected it it would be extremely difficult to restrain 
public feeling in this country. . . . He asked me whether, if 
Germany gave a promise not to violate Belgium neutrality, we would 
engage to remain neutral. I replied that I could not say that. . . . 
The ambassador pressed me as to whether I could not formulate con- 
ditions on which we would remain neutral. He even suggested that 
the integrity of France and her colonies might be guaranteed. I 
said that I felt obliged to refuse definitely any promise to remain 
neutral on similar terms, and I could only say that we must keep 
our hands free. 

So England, directly from the first, took sides with 
Servia in a matter that concerned only Servia and Aus- 
tria. She "could not see how Russia could be urged to 



20 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

suspend preparations" and would not, even for the sake 
of Belgium, state the terms on which she would agree 
to remain neutral in the new German-Russian mobiliza- 
tion dispute. Why Germany finally did violate Belgian 
neutrality is explained by a telegram from the German 
foreign office to the German ambassador in London, 
Prince Lichnowsky, on August four. . . . "Please 
impress upon Sir E. Grey that German army could not 
be exposed to French attack across Belgium, which was 
planned according to absolutely unimpeachable infor- 
mation. Germany had consequently to disregard Bel- 
gian neutrality, it being for her a question of life or 
death to prevent French advance." 

All eyes then are likely for the next few months to 
be fixed on the German army and it has seemed worth 
while to me hastily to collect and publish all the items 
concerning the land, naval and aerial forces that will be 
of general interest in America. No one will look, I 
hope, for much originality in a work of this kind. My 
information is taken from jNIajor von Schreibershofen's 
excellent book Das deutsclie Heer, from Colonel von 
Bremen's Das deutsche Heer nacli der Neuordnung 
von 1913; from Lieutenant Neumann's Luftschiffe and 
his Fliigzeugej from Count Reventlow's interesting 
Deutschlarid ziw See; Troetsch's Deutscldand's Flotte 
im Entsclieidungshampf and Toeche-^Iittler: Die 



THE WAR 21 

deutsche Kriegsflotte. The three last mentioned works, 
and also Von Bremen's, are absolutely new, having been 
published in 1914; Schreibershofen's dates from 1913. 
The two others have no date but one can see that they 
have appeared very recently. The large new works 
Das JaJir WIS, Deutschland unter Kaiser Wilhelm II, 
and the Handbuch der Politik have also been of use to 
me. For the last six months I have followed very care- 
fully in the Zeitungs-Archiv all the newspaper extracts 
bearing on our subject. The war has doubtless inter- 
rupted the publication of the Archiv, so that I shall re- 
main "up to date'' for some little time to come. 



PART II 



THE ARMY 



The great military authority, Bernliardi, in an article 
in Das Jahr 191S, points out various ways in which mili- 
tary science has developed since the Franco-Prussian 
War and shows how completely we have had to abandon 
many of the conceptions gained by a study of earlier 
campaigns. Responsible in the main for the changes are 
the increased size of the armies and the new technical 
inventions of our age. 

Almost all the states of continental Europe have gone 
over to the j^rinciple of universal military service, with 
the result that the armies are greater now in time of 
peace than ever before in time of war, and that when 
mobilization is called for and the reserves are summoned, 
the number of men in the field amounts to millions. The 
first result has been that far other means of transporting 
and concentrating such masses have to be employed than 
used to be the case and that networks of railroads have 
had to be built for purely strategic purposes. In the 
maneuvers that were to have taken place this coming 
autumn at INIiinster in Germany it had been intended to 
make a record in the matter of quick transportation and 
to dispose of 120,000 men in the course of a single morn- 

22 




Arrival of Recruits 




The Field Kitchen 



THE ARMY 23 

ing without interrupting the regular passenger traffic. 
The old method of victualing armies, too, has had to be 
changed, for it is impossible for such hordes to nourish 
themselves by what they chance to find in the enemy's 
country. Problems of another kind have arisen. JNIod- 
ern armies are composed of regulars and reservists alike : 
the reservists are not so hardened as the regulars and 
often not so efficient, so that it has become a custom to 
distribute them in such a way as to achieve the best re- 
sults. As a rule, the regulars must be spared for de- 
cisive actions and reservists must occasionally be sacri- 
ficed, apparently needlessly. There may be cases, for 
instance, where the reserves must expose themselves to 
a murderous fire while the regulars are engaged in the 
more difficult but less dangerous task of cutting off the 
enemy's line of retreat. 

Technical improvements, such as the longer range and 
quicker fire of the guns, swifter means of communica- 
tion and of signaling and the like, not to speak of other 
considerations due to experience, have so changed the old 
tactics that a line of battle is now more than ten times as 
long as it was only a few years ago. At Sadowa, with 
215,000 men, the Austrians had a front of only 10 kilo- 
meters ; at Mukden the attacking line of the Japanese, 
who had only 170,000 men, extended for 110 kilometers. 
"The broken line," writes Bernhardi, "is to-day the only 



24 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

battle formation of the infantry." To-day, officers and 
men fight in trenches and take every advantage of the 
inequafities of the ground; in 1870 it was considered 
disgraceful to take such advantages and the officers 
stood erect in the most deadly fire. In consequence of 
the length of the lines a check in one quarter is no longer 
so serious a matter as it used to be; a modern battle is 
a succession of single engagements of which the victor 
only needs to win a good majority. The commander 
no longer takes up a position, as Napoleon did at Leip- 
zig, where lie can oversee the whole field of operations; 
the best 2:>lace for him is some railroad junction or cen- 
tral telephone station, with wireless and ordinary tele- 
graph equipment, where messages can constantly be 
sent and received, and to and from which he can despatch 
troops, automobiles, motor-wagons or aeroplanes. One 
of the chief modern problems is supplying suflficient 
ammunition for quick-firing guns — the baggage trains 
must not be so long as to hinder the advance of the 
troops, yet where there are many guns and each shoots 
off hundreds of shots a minute, great quantities of am- 
munition are needed. 

I have spoken of military service being almost uni- 
versally compulsory in Europe. This means that every 
man of a certain age and with the requisite health and 
strength is obliged to report for duty. It has not hither- 




o 



fcc 

c 






&C 




Telegrams 




Giving Orders 



THE ARMY 25 

to meant that every eligible recruit was obliged to serve. 
In Germany a large contingent, even of the capable, 
was formerly excused. In 1910, for instance, nearly 
235,000 were declared more or less unfit for service, al- 
though in France thej" would probably nearly all have 
been accepted. By the German army bills of 1911, 1912 
and 1913 indeed the numbers of those required for act- 
ive service were steadily increased: 9,482 in the first 
named year, some 29,000 in the second, and then the 
great increase of 63,000 in the third. But there were 
still, up to the present mobilization, some thirty thou- 
sand able-bodied recruits who could not be placed. 

In the Prussian military-service law of 1814, and 
again in the constitution of the North German Confed- 
eration of 1867, the principle was laid down that the 
army should consist of one per cent, of the population. 
This had long been disregarded as the population in- 
creased, and the proportion had sunk as low as eight- 
tenths of one per cent. It has now been raised to a little 
over the original figure. The population as given offi- 
cially in 1913 w^as 64,925,993, while the number of com- 
mon soldiers (I quote the figures given by Stavenliagen 
in the Handhucli der Politik) was 647,811.* 

* It may be worth giving the exact strength of the German army on October 
1, 1913: Total 790,788 and 157,816 horses. Of these: officers, 30,253; sanitary 
officers, 2,483; veterinaries, 8(55; non-commissioned officers, 104-,377; common 
soldiers, 647,811. (Infantry, 515,216; cavalry, 85,593; field artillery, 126,042; 
sappers and miners, 24,010; communication troops, 18,949; army service, 11,592.) 



26 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

The cost of the German army has been enormous — - 
more than twentv-five bilHon marks between 1872 and 
1910, and in 1913 alone, 1,608,653,300 marks. The ex- 
traordinary defense contribution for 1913, 1914 and 
1915, a tax, not on income but on capital direct, is esti- 
mated to bring nearly 1,300,000,000 marks. Strange to 
say, the tax was very popular — every party in the 
Reichstag voted for it, even the social democrats, whose 
delight in a measure that fell most heavily on the rich 
(small properties were exempted) made them swallow 
the fact that the money was for national and military 
purposes. The yearly sums that the sudden increase in 
the army entails are to be paid by a curious tax on the 
increase of property value to be estimated every three 
years. 

The estimates as to how much the army numbers when 
on a war footing varies between tw^o and three-fourths 
millions and four millions. Austria's army, on paper at 
least, numbers 380,000 men in time of peace, which num- 
ber gradually was to have risen to 410,000 in the next 
few years. In war-time it is estimated at 1,300,000 men. 
Curiously enough Italy, with a peace army of only 300,- 
000, estimates her war army officially at 3,400,000, or 
about as much as either Germany or France. 

For the armies of the Triple Entente we have an esti- 
mate published by the Deutsche Tageszeitung in Jan- 




M 



bC 




Military Telephone Station 



. =M 




Putting up Camjiaign Tents 



THE ARMY 27 

iiary, 1914, which is worth quoting at some length, as it 
is from a well-known military w^riter. Lieutenant 
Colonel von Bremen: 

"The basis of France's military increase in 1913 is the reintroduc- 
tion of the three years' term of service. By retaining these third- 
year men the peace-showing is increased by ahnost a third. This year 
185,000 men are to be called in. The peace strength of the French 
army will, from the autumn of 1916 on, amount to 33,000 officers and 
officials and some 833,000 men, while up to that period we can 
reckon with 780,000 men. One must add to this, 28,000 gendarmes, 
customs and forest officials, who likewise belong to the territorial 
army (like the Landrvehr). In Germany we have for 1913 and 
1914, counting officers, non-commissioned officers and men, 802,000, 
to which, in 1915, will be added 13,000 men. Deducting from the 
present strength of both armies the mere laborers who have to do 
with supplies, etc., Germany's peace force is momentarily the higher, 
but not if we reckon France's gendarmerie, etc. Counting in this, 
France, with 40,000,000 inhabitants, has a larger army in time of 
peace than Germany, with 65,000,000. The French army has fur- 
ther advantages in tlie longer training and in the increased readiness 
for war. The troops covering the eastern frontiers have two hun- 
dred men to a company (four-fifths of the war strength) and even 
at the time when the recruits are being mustered in, one hundred 
forty trained men; while our companies at the same time can dispose 
of only half so strong a number. And what it means in case of war 
to have at hand two fully trained years' contingents (especially in 
the cavalry) during the period of training the recruits is self-evident. 
Further advantages in the French army lie in the longer training of 
the inactive officers and in the good jjrovision for officers and non- 
commissioned officers. In tlie house of deputies negotiations are 
pending regarding advancement regulations tending to lower the 
age limit of tlie whole bod.v of officers. And, above all, it has been 



28 GERMAXY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

made possible to create a new, twenty-first army corps. So we see 
that France, in 1913, has made a very great step forward. 

The Russian armaments of IQIS are also significant. The most 
important event was the appearance in October of the draft of a 
law to prolong the term of active service by three months and that in 
the decisive time from January first (fourteenth) to April first 
(fourteenth). As in Russia, the recruits are called in at latest by 
November fifteenth. Russia will, until spring, still have under arms, 
besides the recruits, the trained contingents of three years in the in- 
fantry — four, indeed, in the cavalry. That considerably increases 
her readiness for war. And in addition to lengthening the term of 
service the number of recruits is still further increased by twenty 
thousand men. The momentary military strength of the Russian 
empire is about one and one-half millions, of which about 1,200,000 
concern Europe (thirty army corps and twenty-four cavalry di- 
visions). But already for IQli we can reckon on the formation of 
from two to three new army corps and on a considerable increase of 
the artillery by at least forty batteries, for which purpose three hun- 
dred twenty million marks have been called for. To make mobiliza- 
tion speedier and to facilitate the march to the west boundary rail- 
roads are to be built. The estimates for this are about two hundred 
sixty million marks. The following stretches are under considera- 
tion: 1. Nowogeorgiewsk to Plozk on the Vistula. 2. Cholm — 
Tomoschow — Belzek. 3. Schepetowka — Proskurow — Larga. In ad- 
dition a number of lines are planned of which one is to encircle our 
province of East Prussia. Along the German frontier, too, the erec- 
tion of wireless stations has energetically been taken in hand. Like- 
wise they have begun to modernize their fort and field artillery. 
Side by side with these endeavors go intended improvements in mili- 
tary education and training and organized changes in the situation 
of the officers' corps and general staff in the way of raising salaries 
and of quicker advancement. Thus for the Russian army, too, and 
its capacity for service the year 1913 is to be looked upon as 
important. 

Furthest in arrears of the armies of the Triple Entente is the 




The Crown Prince 




The Crown Prince at Mess 



THE ARMY 29 

English, Avhich made no progress worth speaking of in 1913. Eng- 
land in her war plans against us long reckoned with landing an army 
of invasion on our coast. The idea has been given up because it was 
declared that probably the weak, active army would be more needed 
elsewhere, especially as its maximum of about 130,000 men could 
not play a decisive part against the millions-of-men armies of Ger- 
many. Nor has the "territorial army," destined for protection at 
home, shown any progress ; of its required strength there were still 
lacking in October, 1913, seventy thousand men and all efforts to 
bring it to the intended height of 311,000 men have failed. The 
thought of tunnel connection with France, however, in spite of the 
dislike of the Britisher, so proud of the isolation the sea offers him, 
has found more adherents than was formerly the case. 

If now we draw our conclusions from our military review of the 
year 1913 the armaments of Austria and Italy on the one hand and 
Russia and England on the other are insignificant as compared with 
those of German}' and France. The two latter remain well in the 
foreground, and indeed in a European war, too, it is they who first 
and foremost would have to try conclusions with each other. 

These observations, made by an expert at the begin- 
ning of 1914, are exceedingly interesting in view of 
what is now going on. Since Von Bremen wrote, how- 
ever, there have been several interesting developments. 
In February it became known that of the French soldiers 
no less than 265,000 had died, were on the sick-list, or 
had been discharged during the previous month. The 
explanation is, that in order to raise the figures even 
the poorest kind of material had been accepted, that old 
unhealthy barracks were overcrowded and that new ones 
had been occupied while the plaster was still wet on the 



30 GERMAXY'S FIGHTIXG MACHINE 

walls; that the army was short of physicians to the extent 
of many hundreds. An official note in a Paris paper de- 
clares that two-thirds of the recruits arrive in a tubercu- 
lous condition. Together with these revelations comes 
a book, by a French military aeronaut, complaining of 
the utter neglect of the air fleet, and declaring that at 
the moment France has not one serviceable hydroplane. 
The whole appropriation for air-ships in connection with 
the navy was but 400,000 francs in 1913, as compared 
with millions appropriated by the rival powers. At the 
same time come revelations regarding the regular navy 
itself. Although there are nine dreadnaughts building, 
but two are ready, and no cruisers. 

In JNIarch appeared the "general annual report of the 
British army," published by the War Office, whicli 
showed that Von Bremen's statement as to the shortage 
of men was not only not exaggerated but greatly under- 
estimated. The regular arm^^ is 9,211 men short, the ter- 
ritorial army 66,969, the special reserve 29,370. The 
explanation lies in the greater attractiveness of the navy 
and in the high emigration figures (178,468 males in 
1913). 

In April we hear of great appropriations in Austria 
both for the army and the navy. Official estimates place 
the strength of the army at 390,250 men, but a German 
critic points out that of these 60,000 are Landtcehr, or re- 




s 




Rear Guard in Ambush 




Artillery Patrol 



THE ARMY 31 

serves, and ought not to be counted. There is to be a 
yearly increase of 31,300 recruits, but the measure is not 
to take full effect until 1918. For the navy, 427,000,000 
kronen are appropriated, of which 4,000,000 are to go 
for military air-ships; but the expenditures are to be 
extended over a period of five years. It has been Aus- 
tria's fate throughout the centuries always to be several 
years behind. 

In June, finally, we learn that Russia has set aside 
for military expenditures in 1914 alone the monstrous 
sum of 2,500,000,000 marks, and by 1916 will have 
added 400,000 men — more than Austria's whole force — 
to her standing army, which will amount, in the winter 
months at least, to 2,200,000 men. "Characteristic," 
writes the Tdgliche Rundschau in commenting on it, "is 
the strengthening of the western boundary-strip and the 
improvement of the strategic network of railroads in 
order to hasten the forwarding of troops." On the other 
hand, attention is drawn in the Danziger Zeitung to the 
fact that Russia has at the moment in the Baltic but four 
battle-ships, all old-fashioned, although by 1915 it is 
hoped to have ready four dreadnaughts. 

We shall hear much in the next few months of in- 
fantry and cavalry, of field artillery and foot artillery, 
of pioneers, of Verhclirstruppen or communication 



32 GERMAXY'S FIGHTIXG MACHINE 

troops, and of the Train or transport division. I there- 
fore preface this section with the definition of these 
terms given by a staiF officer in the newest book of in- 
structions for the one-year volunteers. 

The infantrj" represent the main troops of the army. Their value 
lies in their endurance when marching, in their correct shooting and 
in their brave dashing against the enemy. The infantry is armed 
with the ninety-eight gun and bayonet; the sword-knot non-commis- 
sioned officers {Portepeeunteroffiziere) , battalion-drummers and am- 
bulance-men carry revolvers. 

To the infantry belong the sharpshooter battalions (Jdgerba- 
taillone), the guard sharpshooter battalion (Garde jagerbataillon) 
and the guard rifle-battalion (Gardeschiitzenhataillon). The infan- 
trymen are known as grenadiers, musketeers and fusileers. 

The cavalry is armed with lance, saber and carbine. Its chief 
value is for scouting and for precautionarj' service, but it is also used 
for riding down the enemy and piercing him with the lance. The 
cavalry may also dismount and fight on foot like the infantry. For 
shooting it uses the carbine. 

The cavalry consists of cuirassiers, uhlans, hussars, dragoons and 
mounted riflemen. (In Saxony guard-riders (Gardereiter) and car- 
bineers; in Bavaria heavy riders and light horse (Chevaulegers).) 

The field artillery is effective through the swiftness with which it 
rides up and through the certainty of aim of its quick-firing guns. 
The field artiller}- carries batteries of cannon for firing against 
visible goals and light howitzer batteries, for shooting at objects be- 
hind cover and for demolishing light field fortifications. The drivers 
carry a sword and revolver, the cannoneers a dagger and revolver. 
Every man of the horse-drawn division is mounted and carries sword 
and revolver. 

The foot artillery has to serve the fort and siege artillery as well 
as the heavy artillery guns of the field army; in attacking a fortress 
it must silence the enemv's hcavv fort ffuns and make breaches in the 















^ i 


4> 


|v^l 






J^ 




BBBlMMMii^.je^fl^i^kirf^'JJl^.^ilfgterfftaaiJH^a %:.-*^7^ 


t: 








BK-" -: 


^ 



Floating; the Pontoons 




Machine Ginis iJeing; Loaded on Pontoons 



THE ARiSIY 33 

fortifications; when defending it must overcome the enemy's heavy 
sieo-e o-uns. The men are called cannoneers; they carry the carbine 
and the ninety-eight bayonet. 

The pioneers see to the throwing up of entrenchments, the build- 
ing and destroying of bridges, obstructions, etc. ; they are armed like 
the infantrymen. 

The communication troops consist of the railroad regiments, which 
in time of war have to see to the building and running of railroads ; 
of the telegraph battalions, which put up telegraph lines; of the 
fortress telephone companies, which attend to all telephone matters 
in the fortress ; of the air-ship and aeroplane battalions, who are en- 
trusted with spying out the land and the enemy's positions by means 
of balloons, air-ships and aeroplanes. 

The communication troops are armed like the infantry. 

The transport service (Train) supplies every kind of column of 
the army with bridge materials, food, ammunition, etc. Its weapons 
are swords, carbines and revolvers. 

It is not worth while here to enter into the question of 
uniforms. In time of peace the blue coats and red col- 
lars of the infantry, the varied colored attilas and fur 
caps of the hussars, the helms with the flying eagles of 
the guards, the tresses, the gleaming epaulettes, the 
scarves, the waving plumes, are all interesting enough, 
especially to the other sex; but in war that is all laid 
aside. In order to be as invisible as possible to the 
enemy all categories of troops wear the same ashen 
gray — a comparatively recent adaptation of the prin- 
ciple of protective coloring. 

In the German army the cavalry is merely an adjunct 
of the infantry. It is the infantry which decides battles 



34 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

— not the cavalr}^ not even the artillery. However, the 
infantry of to-day is something very different from the 
infantry of the eighteenth and even from that of a 
great part of the nineteenth centur}^ German military 
writers acknowledge that the world learned new tactics 
from the sharpshooters and riflemen of the American 
war of the rebellion. The whole modern battle forma- 
tion rests on the idea of giving more play to the indi- 
vidual. In spite of the technical progress that has made 
of armies great machines, more weight than ever before 
is laid on quick judgment, on good shooting, on physical 
bravery and endurance. I know that an idea quite con- 
trary to this prevails, that many consider war reduced 
to the art of setting off the greatest quantities of ex- 
plosives within a given time. But this is very far from 
the truth. The battles of the past were of much shorter 
duration than are those of the present. Wagram was 
won in two hours, INIukden took three days. 

One learns to adapt one's self even to quick-firing 
guns and incredible rifle-ranges. It has been math- 
ematically demonstrated that, with the rifles now in the 
hands of the German infantry, a bullet fired from a dis- 
tance of three hundred yards will pass right through five 
men standing closely one behind the other and lodge in 
the body of the sixth. But men in battle line no longer 
stand closely one behind the other, nor even closely side 




a 

s 
3 




Pursuit 




Infantry Embarking 



THE ARMY 35 

by side. Even in what is considered a thick firing hne 
they stand about three feet apart. 

I have said that the modern idea is to give more play 
to the individual. Within certain limits the men choose 
their own position, find the proper rests for their rifles, 
get each the range for himself, determine the speed of 
their own fire and use their own judgment in the econ- 
omizing of ammunition. They are expected to advance 
according as they see their opportunity. 

A glance at the methods of training the infantry will 
give some idea of the care and thoroughness with which 
the Germans have made their preparations for war. The 
old drill has not been entirel}^ abandoned — indeed, some 
military critics think that there is still too much of the 
goose-stejD marching and of the parade tricks. But these 
have lost their old importance and the tendency of late 
years is tow^ard the most realistic representation of the 
circumstances and problems of actual combat. The pa- 
rade-ground has given place to the maneuvering field, 
acres and miles in extent. For the first time in Ger- 
many, this autumn, whole army corps were to have en- 
gaged in mock combat with one another. 

In the ordinary rifle practise the men are taught first 
to shoot well individually, then in groups and detach- 
ments, next in whole troops and companies and finally 
in conjunction with cavalry and artillery. They are 



36 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

made to adapt themselves to the most unf amihar and un- 
usual surroundings. Even the targets are of the most 
varied description : targets that fall to the ground when 
hit, targets that burst, targets surrounded by smoking 
objects or colored fires so that there will be some of the 
semblance of battle, fixed targets and targets that move 
or that float in the air, targets that have been lying flat on 
the ground but that suddenly appear here and there like 
an enemy issuing from the bushes. The rifleman must 
learn never to be surprised at anything, but to keep his 
eyes open in all directions. 

The German army rifle is of a type first introduced 
in 1888, and so much improved in 1898 that it is now 
known as the ninety-eight gun. All the infantry 
carry the same, for there is no longer any essential 
distinction between musketeers, fusileers and grena- 
diers. It is a quick-loading rifle which renders it pos- 
sible to take aim and shoot as man}^ as twentj-five 
times a minute. The caliber is seven and nine-tenths 
millimeters, a fact which may not at first seem to the 
American reader of great importance, but which be- 
comes more interesting when it is realized that this is 
the smallest caliber which will inflict sufficient injury on 
an enemy to make its use profitable. In other words, if 
it does not kill him at once it will put him out of the fight 
and keep him out for a reasonable time. It was found 




Cannon for Shooting Airships 




Combination Hydro and Aeroplane 



THE ARMY 37 

in the Russian-Japanese War that a smaller bullet could, 
and in a number of cases did, pass through a foeman's 
body without rendering him Iwi^s de combat^ and that 
no less than forty per cent, of all wounded were back 
with their troops in three months. 

There are jMaxim rifles which can fire as many as a 
hundred shots a minute and which have other advantages 
too ; but the German government is well satisfied with its 
own gun, considers it superior to that of any of its 
neighbors' and has never seriously considered the ques- 
tion of changing. It has a smokeless powder, the process 
of manufacture of which is a carefully guarded secret. 

A recent innovation is the supplying of the infantry 
— for that matter of the cavalry also — with so-called 
machine guns. They are the Gatling guns of our own 
country, and every German infantry regiment now — 
since the army reform of 1913 — has a machine-gun com- 
pany. It consists of ninety men and forty horses, with 
six guns and three ammunition wagons. As the newest 
guns can fire at the rate of six hundred shots a minute, 
and as there are more than two hundred infantry regi- 
ments, not to speak of the cavalry and artillery, which 
also have their companies of "Gatlings," one can gain 
some impression of the deadliness of modern campaign- 
ing. ]Many of the quick-firing guns now are supplied 
with stands on pivots so that they can be pointed in the 



38 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

air against balloons and aeroplanes. But their chief use 
will be in guarding bridges and narrow passes. Their 
bullets carry for two miles, but they can be silenced by 
heavy artillery far beyond this range, nor can they carry 
enough ammunition for long-continued use. Alto- 
gether, however, a comparison of their fire with the sim- 
ple flames of the traditional hell makes the latter place 
seem a mere pleasure-resort. 

The training of a soldier has of late years become 
more and more humane and rational, and is no longer 
confined to manning guns, shooting rifles and per- 
forming long marches. Those Germans with whom I 
have spoken on the subject look back to their term of 
service with pleasure, and my general conviction is that 
the army in time of peace is the most perfect educa- 
tional institution in existence. With school learning 
every boy when he comes to "serve" is more or less 
equipped. What he learns is esprit de corps, manly 
bearing, endurance and the feeling that his tasks must 
be quickly and faultlessly performed — in other words, 
regularity and discipline. The mere change of sur- 
roundings and interests is a benefit, and the outlook on 
the world is immeasurably broadened. The old argu- 
ment against compulsory military training — that, name- 
ly, young men in their best years are withdrawn from 
productive work, does not amount to much in an age 




bD 




Covered Field Artillery 




A Howitzer B,-itterv Crossino: a Pontoon Bridge 



THE ARMY 39 

where the general complaint is of overcrowdedness in 
almost every calling and profession. The German boy 
does his work all the better for his military training and 
the nation has thoroughly adjusted itself to the falHng 
out of these two years. There are dispensations for cases 
where the boy's presence at home is a vital matter for the 
support of others, and, as a rule, a place that he filled be- 
fore is kept open for him against his return. 

One of the pleasantest recent developments has been 
the enthusiasm for sport that had taken hold of the 
army. The authorities encouraged it in every way, for 
it was in keeping with the new tactics of training the 
individual to be efficient and independent. The author 
had the pleasure of attending the first great military 
athletic meet that has ever taken place. It was held in 
June, 1914, in the great stadium that has been erected 
near Berlin for the Olympic games of 1916, and that 
army which is now fighting so strenuously for the very 
existence of its country was represented in all its pomp 
and glory. On an elevated terrace was the emperor with 
his court. Next came the logen or boxes which were 
blue with the uniforms of the officers. A large majority 
of the spectators were soldiers, for whom whole sections 
had been reserved; they marched in in seemingly un-- 
ending lines, looking very neat in their summer undress 
uniforms. The exercises began wdth gymnastics or 



40 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

turneiij to which, all over Germany, the greatest im- 
portance is attached. There was the usual running, 
jumping and throwing of weights — with us it is a shot, 
with them it is a discus. There was a cross-countrj'' run 
of four miles which started and ended in the stadium, 
and in which some fift}^ or sixty officers took part. It 
was won by a splendid young prince of the royal house, 
Prince Frederick Leopold. The best comment that I 
heard on him was that he looked like a first-class Ameri- 
can. 

But most interesting of all was the obstacle race for 
the common soldiers. A part of their regular training 
consists in climbing walls and trees ; and on their parade 
grounds you will find special tracks with ditches, walls 
and palisades ; while occasionally the obstacles are of the 
most serious kind — iron railings with twisted spikes 
through which they must make their way. In the sta- 
dium games the soldiers lined up on the farther side of 
a great swimming-pool that runs along one end of the 
field below the spectators. At a given signal they 
plunged into the water, swam for dear life to the other 
side, climbed the low protecting wall and were off helter- 
skelter for the hurdles and other obstacles. Behind one 
of the hurdles, concealed by green boughs, was a slimy 
watery hole, but it detained tliem but for a moment. 
Across the track a high straight impromptu w^all was 




Effect of Two Shells on a Six-Foot Reinforced Concrete Wall 




Scaling; Barricades 



THE ARMY 41 

held in place by soldiers and up it all the contestants had 
to clamber. One almost stuck at the top ; you watched 
him breathlessly to see if he could achieve it, but there 
was no jeering, as I fear there would have been at home. 
The whole race, in which were some fifty or more par- 
ticipants, was run with a wonderful freshness, joyous- 
ness and what the Germans call schneidigkeit, which 
corresponds to our American slang expression "toni- 

ness." 

Even in the ordinary practise on the parade-ground 
an adjutant keeps a record of the time that the soldiers 
need to overcome the different obstacles. Whole com- 
panies have to pass the required tests. The whole thing 
is already reduced to such a system that in war an officer 
will know to the smallest detail what he can expect of 
his men. Great importance is attached to swimming, for 
occasions are sure to arise in a campaign when streams 
are to be forded or where the pontoon divisions have 
to be assisted. 

On the whole the rise of sport has had a great level- 
ing influence in the army. Soldiers and officers do not, 
indeed, compete with each other as a rule ; but they take 
part in the same meets, and I have observed that the 
soldier seems to rise in importance while the tendency of 
the officer is to forget himself in the excitement of the 
moment. I have a vision of non-participants flying 



42 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

across the field with the tails of their long coats flap- 
ping behind them to carry tidings or encouragement to 
some tired runner — which denotes a very great change 
from the unswervingly dignified bearing of other days. 
Soldiers and officers now are encouraged to join athletic 
associations, which makes for less exclusiveness. 

If the infantry is the mainstay of the German armj^ 
the cavalry is indispensable for reconnoitering, for mak- 
ing raids and for pursuit. Each cavalryman, as has 
been said, carries a lance, a sword and a carbine. ^luch 
time is spent in training the men to the use of the lance, 
which is of hollow steel. ^Men of straw, for instance, are 
placed on the ground and the lancer, riding by, has to 
inflict a wound in exactly the place designated. Or a 
straw head is placed on a stake and must be knocked 
off in passing. The carbines, which are stuck in the sad- 
dle, are of a perfected modern type and are but little 
inferior to the muskets of the infantry. 

Cavalry regiments, with which speed of progress is 
the first consideration, carry their own bridge-wagons, 
so that they can either repair bridges that have been de- 
stroyed, or construct entirely new ones. It has been 
found that rafts made of fodder-bags stufl*ed with straw 
and held together by lances, boards, logs, etc., can carry 
comparatively heavy weights. Six such bags as I have 
described can, at a pinch, carry six men. Barrels and 







''I 










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fl 








C3 


' » ^ 






03 



t 



^f. 



CO 



55C 




Cavalry Patrol 




Building a Bridge with Sacks 



THE ARMY 43 

chests are still more useful if they happen to be at hand. 
Xeedless to say, the cavalry bridge-wagons also carry 
explosives for destroying the enemy's bridges and other 
defenses. 

It has been thought in some quarters that aeroplanes 
and other contrivances for scouting and communication 
would supersede cavalry, but the German army adminis- 
tration evidently does not think so, as it has more than 
150,000 horses in use even in time of peace. In time of 
war all private horses are subject to requisition, as are 
also automobiles, motor-trucks, motor-wheels and aero- 
planes. The better riders in a regiment train the horses 
for the rest, and there is a constant mustering out of the 
inferior ones in favor of others that are stronger or 
younger or more docile. There are military riding 
schools at Hanover, Dresden and JNIunich, where officers 
are taught not only to ride well and to instruct others 
but also to break in young horses. 

Prussia has her own stud-farms in which the royal 
family, since the days of Frederick William I, has taken 
the greatest interest. There is a regular Prussian type, 
small and tough. The theory has lately been advanced 
that Asiatic horses are more free from disease and that 
they proved more enduring in the recent Turkish-Bul- 
garian War, while the Prussian horse, through faults in 
the manner of raising, has degenerated during the long 



44 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

period of unbroken peace. This, however, is simply an 
academic question and nothing short of war itself can 
demonstrate that under all conditions another type of 
horse will be preferable. 

The Russian-Japanese War brought the old cavalry 
raid, such as we associate with the names of Sheridan 
and Wilson, once more to honor, and an expedition of 
JNIischtschenko's in February, 1905, though not wholly 
successful, aroused much interest in cavalrj^ circles in 
Europe. It is considered not unlikely that such "raids" 
will play a great part in the present war. The Germans 
use the American word for the maneuver. 

If cavalry is merely an adjunct of infantry, this is 
still more true of artillery. Its function, according to 
the latest German writers, is to facilitate the advance of 
the infantry, or, in other words, to break and open the 
path b}^ which the infantry shall storm. It has some- 
times been thought of the battle of the future that it 
would consist of two parts: the great artillery duel and 
the infantry struggle; and that the infantry would have 
to stand aside until the artillerj^ duel was over. The con- 
trary is the case. The two, in this coming war, will fight 
side by side: the artillery opening the breach, the in- 
fantry coming in. 

German batteries consist of six guns, while those of 
the French have only four. Good authorities, even in 




Wheel Belt for Cannon 




A Howitzer Batterv 



THE ARMY 45 

Germany, prefer the French system, but the change 
would mean more expense than was considered war- 
rantable. A novelty is that the guns now have great 
steel shields that protect the gunners. Another most 
useful innovation is the so-called wheel belt. A number 
of fiat blocks or shoes, wider than the tire and hinged so 
as to form a great chain, protect the wheels of the gun- 
carriage and prevent them from sinking into the mud. 
Formerly a supply of beams, jackscrews and the like 
had to be carried along for use in extricating the cannon 
when they stuck fast. Now every large gun in the army 
has its belt, which can be removed and put on again at 
will, the operation lasting but six minutes. 

The largest guns accompanying the infantry have a 
bore of twenty-one centimeters, which is much less, of 
course, than the fixed guns in fortresses or those used 
for coast defense. The size of these is ever increasing, 
and there is already talk of forty centimeter guns. The 
field guns fire shells and shrapnel and there is a so-called 
"unit charge" which is a combination of the two. A 
shrapnel is a thin metal ball filled with explosive bullets 
and can be discharged either by ignition or percussion. 
It is considered preferable to have it burst in the air, just 
above the point aimed at, as the shock is downward. 
Krupp has patented a shell that explodes by clock-work. 

One further fact concerning artillery may interest 



46 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

those who follow the present campaigns. In all the 
older famous battles the greatest efforts were made to 
drag the artillery up the hills and have it crown the 
heights. According to recent strategy it chooses rather 
low-lying protected spots. Howitzers can shoot right 
over a hill and have the shell curve and descend on the 
other side. The calculations as to just where it will 
strike are made with astounding accuracy, even though 
the goal itself may be invisible. . The guns are being 
constantly improved, but the greatest secrecy is observed 
with regard to them. They are shrouded as they pass 
through the streets and no one can inspect them without 
a written order. 

The low situation has its great advantages as well as 
its disadvantages, but the latter can be counteracted. 
In order to be able to overlook the field, each battery 
now has an observation ladder or column, of which the 
parts can be telescoped into short space and carried be- 
tween two wheels. When desired it is projected into the 
air. One advantage of this new invention is that the 
wheeled observation ladder can be sent off to quite a 
distance carrying a portable telephone by means of 
which it is possible at all times to communicate with the 
gunners. 

Many cannon now have telescopes attached to them 
to assist the gunner in taking aim. When we reflect 




Observation Column 




Observation Ladder 



















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P<^. ^jj^^H 








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Covered Field Artillery 



THE ARiNIY 47 

that some of the guns can shoot five and six miles, the 
necessity of this will be apparent. 

For storming fortifications there are special heavy 
siege guns. A modern fortress is something very dif- 
ferent from a medieval or even from an early nine- 
teenth century one. The old city walls, however solidly 
built, are now regarded as mere pleasant bits of an- 
tiquity, and in dozens of German towns have been razed 
to the ground and converted into rings or boulevards. So 
in the city of Cologne, in Ulm. In their place we now 
have groups of sunken guns, of protected batteries and 
of underground bomb-proof rooms with walls of re- 
inforced concrete twelve and fifteen feet thick. Here 
and there armored turrets project a few feet above the 
ground. Some of the rooms are large enough for a 
whole company of infantry. The sunken guns can 
rise from their resting-places, fire their charges and sink 
back into their beds. Germany has twenty-eight land 
forts in all, of which nine are modern in every regard, 
and eight coast fortifications. Should the Russians en- 
ter Prussia we may hear much of the great forts at 
Konigsberg, Graudenz and Thorn, at Danzig, Kulm 
and Marienburg, or of the Silesian forts Glogau, Neisse 
and Glatz, which played a part already in the wars of 
Frederick the Great. In the west, INIetz and Strasburg 
have been immeasurably strengthened since they passed 



48 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

into German hands, and Mainz, Coblenz, Cologne, Ger- 
mersheim and Wesel are all formidable. To the south 
are Ulm and Ingolstadt, while in the north are Kustrin 
and Spandau, the latter but a few miles from Berlin. In 
Saxony is the Konigstein, which, by reason of its natural 
position, is considered as impregnable as any fortress 
can be. 

Whether the Germans will ever be forced back into 
these strong positions remains to be seen. Their policy 
is to keep to the offensive and spare their own land as 
much as possible. However, what strength of arms may 
fail to accomj^lish may be reserved for famine. With 
her commerce entirely cut off, the food supply for the 
nation at large will be but scanty, and of all the criti- 
cisms I have read on the German army during the last 
six months those on the commissariat department have 
been the most severe. A change in the whole adminis- 
tration was ordered a few months before the war broke 
out, but it has scarcely as yet had time to go into full 
effect. 

The Ariny of the Air 

Probably the greatest difference between ancient and 
modern warfare lies in the systematic use that is now 
made of balloons, air-ships, aeroplanes and kites, also of 
telegraphy, both fixed and wireless, and of the tele- 



THE ARINIY 49 

phone. I should add to these, automobiles, motor-trucks, 
motorcycles and simple bicycles. 

It may not be generally known that as far back as 
1870 Germany attempted to make regular use of mili- 
tary balloons, and that two balloons and equipment were 
purchased from an English aeronaut. Several ascents 
were successfully made with a member of the general 
staff as passengers. Before Paris, however, it proved 
impossible to obtain the gas for inflation, and the whole 
balloon detachment was dissolved. Fourteen years later, 
in 1884, regular experiments regarding the taking of 
observations and the exchanging of signals were be- 
gun. Fifty thousand marks a year were set aside for 
the purpose, and so satisfactory were the results that in 
1887 a regular balloon corps was organized with a ma- 
jor, a captain, three Heutenants and fifty non-commis- 
sioned officers and men. The discovery that the gas 
could be transported in steel cases in a greatly condensed 
form placed military ballooning on a much securer 
basis and the corps, greatly increased, has taken part in 
the yearly maneuvers since 1893. The captive balloon 
is still used as a sort of training-ship for recruits, but 
the free balloon has been practically superseded. 

The first Zeppelin and the first Parseval air-ships were 
acquired in 1907 and, in spite of frequent accidents, 
have become as much a part of the armed forces as have 



50 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

batteries or battle-ships. There are now no less than five 
air-ship battalions under the "general board of inspec- 
tion of military, air and power transport matters." The 
combined appropriations of Prussia, Bavaria and Wiirt- 
temberg for their air fleets in 1913 amounted to 70,000,- 
000 marks. The recent ships, which are not necessarily 
confined to the Zeppelin type, though built along the 
same lines, are almost as large as ocean steamships. Last 
year the "L II" carried twenty-eight passengers on its 
trial trip. It exploded in mid-air and twenty-seven 
were killed, among them almost all of Germany's chief 
military aeronautic experts. "L III," which is nearly 
completed, will have a displacement of 32,000 cubic 
meters. The largest and newest ship at present, the 
Schiitte-Lanz II, has a displacement of between 23,000 
and 24,000 cubic meters, is run by four ]Maybach mo- 
tors, each of one hundred seventy horse-power, and beats 
the previous Zeppelin record for speed ( seventy-nine kil- 
ometers or forty-nine and three-eighths miles an hour) 
by six kilometers. No other country has any air-ship that 
can in any way compare with this. Under construction 
is the twenty-fifth Zeppelin, which will have a length of 
some four hundred fifty feet. All modern air-ships are 
equipped with wireless telegraphy having a range of 
about four hundred kilometers, and can carry light Gat- 
ling guns. They can lift a weight of some 16,000 




c 



o 




Gondola of the Schiitie-Lanz I Airsliip 




Airship Parseval 



THE ARMY 51 

pounds and their cost is from 700,000 marks upward 
Tlie Germans have practised very industriously with 
then- an-ships-only the other day a pilot completed Iiis 
seven hundredth trip. 

Whether in war the Zeppelins «-ill come up to the 
expectations that have been formed of them remains of 
course to be seen. One can conceive of a single ship 
under favorable conditions, throwing down enough ex- 
plosives on an army to put it completelv to rout. But 
the Zeppelin is a very big target and its motors make 
enough noise to warn a whole city of its approach. Rus- 
sia and Germany herself now have many vertical guns 
for shooting air-ships. On the other hand, a Zeppelin 
can fly very high and can take refuge behind a cloud 
Its chief objects of attack will doubtless be arsenals 
dockyards, bridges and tunnel-mouths, though no fleet 
near the shore and no camp can feel quite safe from it 
in future. It would be so tempting to drop a shell in 
the midst of an enemy's general staff and thus bring 
confusion into the whole guidance of the army! 

The Zeppelin has dangerous enemies in the ordinary 
aeroplanes. A Frenchman has just vowed to run the 
nose of his "plane" into the first air-ship that appears 
over Pans. It is possible for the airman to shoot, too. at 
close range, or to fly above the monster and let down 
ropes with hooks that shall tear its sides. The new 



52 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

ships, however, as I have said, can carry Gatling guns, 
and it is only a question of how they can best trail them 
on the enemy. Tlie latest idea is a shaft that shall ex- 
tend right through the body of the Zeppelin and come 
out on the upper surface. This arrangement has been 
tried on the newest Schiitte-Lanz. 

To the value of aeroplanes as instruments of war 
Germany awakened late. Not until after an exhibition 
of the American, Orville Wright, on the Templehof 
field near Berlin in 1910 was the matter taken very 
seriously. Now there are four flying battalions in the 
army with nearly fifteen hundred men, and it is believed 
that the machines are more solid and stable than those of 
the French. All records were broken by German ma- 
chines during the past year, and the great Prince Henry 
races in jNIay, though fatal accidents occurred, demon- 
strated very well about what may be expected from a 
troop of airmen in time of war. The conditions were 
extremely severe and the weather was not favorable, yet 
twelve out of twentj^-nine starters achieved the final goal 
within the time limit. 

The favorite machine in the German army is the Al- 
batross-Taube, which looks quite warlike with its metal 
armor covering motor and all. Both monoplanes and 
biplanes are used. In case of war all aeroplanes, even 
the stock in trade of the manufacturer, are com- 




Marine Airship 




A Zeppelin over the Kiel Bay 



THE AR.AIY 53 

mandeered. These aeroplanes are easily transportable 
by rail so that a number of them can be concentrated 
close to the scene of action. They will be used for scout- 
ing, carrying despatches and dropping bombs, and un- 
doubtedly will have a great effect upon warfare. It is 
likely that more maneuvering will be done under the 
cover of night than formerly in order to escape the spy- 
ing eyes of the birdmen, that false marches and maneu- 
vers ^vill be undertaken, that bivouac fires will be 
lighted in unoccupied places merely for the purpose of 
deceiving. It will be easy to conceal cannon by covering 
them with green boughs. 

The German soldiers are already being trained for 
these new night operations which the aeroplane and air- 
ship will necessitate. They are taught to make their w^ay 
by the moon and stars, to place their ears to the ground 
and catch and interpret sounds. It is possible for a 
finely trained ear to tell in the case of a passing horse 
whether it is running free or whether it is carrying a 
load, also to estimate the approximate number of a pass- 
ing troop. Silent marching is practised, too, the greatest 
care being taken that the objects carried shall not clash 
or rattle. The enemy carries powerful electric search- 
lights against aeroplanes; a single apparatus requires 
several vehicles, each drawn by four horses. There must 
be a motor, a dynamo, a great mirror, a water wagon 



54 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

and a portable tower thirt}^ feet high. The infantry 
carries lighter apparatus, too, that can now be loaded on 
an automobile, the motor of which can be used for run- 
ning the dynamo. Aeroplanes, too, now carry search- 
lights. 

An enormous number of automobiles are used in the 
army. The German government has a special arrange- 
ment with motor-truck owners (the same is done with 
steamship companies) by which it pays a subsidy for 
new trucks on the understanding that they shall be at its 
disposal in time of need. It has been estimated that nine 
motor-wagons can replace one hundred thirty-nine horses 
and will need thirty instead of one hundred two men. 
Such a wagon Avill carry easily four tons of baggage. 

The Officers 

With all the technical aids and inventions, however, 
the decisive factor in a war remains the men and more 
especially the officers. 

I recently overheard a well-known Boston woman 
teacher holding forth with the positiveness of complete 
conviction on the subject of the German officer and com- 
miserating him on the life of idleness circumstances 
forced him to lead "except, of course, during the three 
or four hours a day when he is obliged to exercise." The 
remark was addressed to a distinguished Harvard pro- 




Albatross-Taube Model 1914 




Albatross-Taube Packed for Shipping 




Double Monoplane 




Albatross Hydro and Aeroplane 



THE ARMr 55 

fessor— anti-military, however, to the core — who had no 
contradiction to offer. I should have marked both of 
these great people zero for flat ignorance of the subject 
had I had them in a class. The German officer, I grant, 
may occasionally seem as idle and as frivolous as the son 
of a new American millionaire: the only diff'erence 
would be that the American conceals his idleness under 
a show of industriousness, sending telegrams when he 
has nothing else to do, while the German conceals the 
fact that he has been up since four in the morning train- 
ing a mass of raw recruits, that he has spent several 
hours at the Krie gsakademie studying languages, geog- 
raphy, political economy and the like and that he has as 
a permanent job some important problem in tactics to 
work out. Those who know the methods of the Prussian 
government could never accuse it of giving its employees 
too little work. A list is kept of all officers in which 
their industry, their interest in their work and their gen- 
eral ffood conduct is noted. The ideal that is kept before 
them may not be exactly our ideal, but it is a wonderful 
one of knightly virtue all the same. The man may 
never forget that he is a leader of men; he must grip 
his standard of honor, such as it is, like grim death and 
be willing unhesitatingly to lay down his life for it. If 
he flinch or falter in physical encounter or in any way 
is "guilty of conduct unbecoming an officer" he has to 



56 GERMAXY'S FIGHTIXG MACHINE 

resign his position. He has to conform not only to the 
rule of his superiors hut also to the code of his fellow 
officers. There are things in that code that one would 
like not to see there and one misses much that might 
well be included, but to down the profession as a sine- 
cure "except, of course, during the three or four hours 
a day" is the purest folly. 

And peace-time is the mere waiting-period, the period 
of training for the real work. In war-time the fate of 
the whole country hangs on the officer. An Italian, 
Mangiarotti, recently inquired of some two thousand 
soldiers who had just taken part in the African cam- 
paign regarding their sensations when facing the 
enemy. "The great ideals of God, king and father- 
land," he writes, "incorporate themselves in one single 
personality, the officer." The lieutenant who does his 
duty in the firing line is an absolute hero to his men. 
But only real superiority of mind and body can keep 
him at this height. 

There are more than thirty thousand officers in the 
regular standing army, the great majority of them be- 
longing to the nobility, who feel that they liave a heredi- 
tary right to these positions. I am inclined to think 
that this feeling of caste will not be disadvantageous in 
war. The military career from youth up has been the 
one serious object and occupation in life. The memory 




A Taube over the Military Flying Grounds at Johannistlial, near Berlin 




Biplant- 




Airship Transportation Wagon 



THE ARMY 57 

of Jena has been preventative of pride and an incentive 
to hard work. The habit of commanding gained as 
lord of the manor — as Herr Graf or as Herr Baron — 
will not be useless in the field. 

Price Collier, in his Germany and the Ger^nans, gives 
the officer a bad character for arrogance and instances 
the fact that an officer will crowd a woman off the side- 
walk. Such cases are very rare to-day, much rarer than 
they were some thirty years ago. The Zabern affair, 
however, has tlirown a glaring light on a certain pre- 
sumptuousness in the army and aroused at the time very 
bitter passions. There was a contempt for the ordinary 
laws of justice connected with the trial that is likely to 
avenge itself in time if it has not already done so. But 
no human institution is perfect, and the officer has at 
present far other things to think of than presumptuous- 
ness. 

In time of war manj' more officers are needed than in 
time of peace. This is provided for in Germany by a 
different and less perfect system than in France. From 
the one-year volunteers, of whom there are about 15,000 
yearly, are taken the "officer aspirants," who then un- 
dergo supplementary training, returning at intervals in 
later life for further instruction and practise. The 
general structure of the army does not change in time 
of war. Instead of numbering five or six hundred men 



58 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

the size of a battalion is raised to eleven hundred or 
more. There are supplementary troops in all branches, 
consisting party of retired soldiers and partly of raw 
recruits, who must be licked into shape as quickly as pos- 
sible, but who serve mainly to fill up the ranks at the 
front as they become depleted. Every able-bodied man 
must leave his occupation and take to the ranks whether 
he has had military training or not. Even a German in 
foreign lands, if he fail to report for duty to his consul, 
is liable on his return to a sentence of six years in the 
penitentiary How many will hasten to naturalize 
themselves in other countries is one of the problems of 
the war. 

Horses, too, are called in in great numbers as soon as 
mobilization is ordered. In time of peace the twenty- 
five army corps, each numbering about forty thousand 
men, require 157,000 horses ; in time of war the demand, 
of course, will be much larger, and this is provided for 
by instant requisition. But not at random. A list or 
census is regularly kept of practically all the horses in 
the country ; it is revised at stated intervals and commis- 
sioners note the adaptability of every animal to this or 
that purpose. In times of mobilization the animals are 
brought before final commissions, consisting partly of 
military, partly of civilian members, who appraise their 
value and declare them confiscate. The transferring of 




Uhlans Crossing: River 




Patrol of Uhlans 




Uhlans Fordins: River 




Kasily Upset 



THE ARMY 59 

horses to the rallying centers is one of the chief difficul- 
ties of the railroads, which, as is well known, belong to 
the state and are altogether closed to general traffic dur- 
ing the mobilization period. 

Germany is putting, so it is estimated, some four 
million men into the field. And behind them, should 
the war last long, are nearly a million boys who belong 
to the Prussian Jung Deutschland and to the Bavarian 
Wehrhraftverein, Boy scouts, we should call them in 
our country, but in Germany they are regularly trained 
by officers in tlie army — an occupation of these sinecure- 
holders that I omitted to mention. They are taken in 
squads on long tramps, are trained to use their eyes and 
ears and enjoy the life of the hills and woods. They 
carry their cooking utensils and prepare their own 
meals. The government encourages the institution by 
large grants and often places barracks and tents at the 
disj)osal of the boys for longer expeditions. Public and 
private generosity, too, has provided homes in out-of- 
the-way places where the boys can take shelter over 
night. 

How deadly an instrument for war is the German 
army remains to be seen. That it has already accom- 
plished many fine things in time of peace is undoubted. 
Not the least of these is the spread of hygienic knowl- 
edge and the encouragement of manliness. 



60 GERMANY'S FIGHTIXG MACHINE 

By the terms of the German constitution the Kaiser 
is head and chief of the whole German army and, not- 
withstanding concessions made to Bavaria, Wiirttem- 
berg and Saxony for the period when it remains on a 
peace-footing, is absolute commander in time of war. 
Whether he will personally take the field or not is an- 
other question. If he does he will be upheld by an 
enormous wave of loyalty, but, on the other hand, the 
presence of a monarch in camp is often a hindrance to 
the operations. His own great-grandfather, and at the 
same time the Austrian emperor, made life very bitter 
for Bliicher and the other real fighters in 1814. 

The real business of commanding a modern army is 
done by the chief of the general staff. It is of good 
augury that the present holder of that position is again 
a Moltke. On him falls the planning and the respon- 
sibility for carrying out of the plans, though he has un- 
der him a huge staff of subordinates — more than two 
hundred in all — whose duty is to collect information, 
make reports and even tender advice. The older JNIoltke 
once wrote: "The make-up of the headquarters of an 
army is of an importance not always sufficientlj^ real 
ized. Some commanders need no advice, but weigh and 
decide things for themselves. Their subordinates have 
merely to carry out instructions. But such stars of 
first radiance are only to be found about once in a cen- 



THE ARMY 61 

tury. Only a Frederick the Great takes counsel with 
no one and determines everything himself. As a rule 
the leader of an army can not do without advice." The 
old plan was to hold a council of war and abide by its 
decisions; the new one is for the commanding general 
to use every aid from others but to take the whole re- 
sponsibility himself. 

Headquarters travels with the army and with it goes 
the imperial chancellor, ready to take advantage of 
every happening in the field to influence the course of 
negotiations. The minister of war remains at home to 
see to the prompt forwarding of troops and supplies. In 
1870 and 1871 Bismarck had much to suffer from fe- 
male influences — royal ladies who objected to the bom- 
bardment of beautiful cities and the like. There are at 
present no royal ladies in Germany who are likely to 
interfere. Bliicher used to insist that the most merciful 
way of making war was to be absolutely relentless in 
pursuit — to the last man and to the last horse. The 
worst thing that can happen is to have the campaign 
drag on slowly with necessity of renewing battles. This 
phase of the matter royal ladies do not always under- 
stand. 

If the example of the Franco-Prussian War is fol- 
lowed the Germans will put as many as six different 
armies into the field, each with some four army-corps. 



62 GERMA]NY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

There are twenty-five army-corps, and the fighting part 
of a single army-corps, which numbers some 41,000 
men, strings out on an ordinary road to a distance of 
twenty-six kilometers or more than sixteen miles. As 
the food supplies, medical and surgical apparatus and 
ammunition wagons have to follow at a considerable 
distance we may estimate the length of the whole col- 
umn at more than double this amount. Were the whole 
standing army (not to speak of the reserves) to travel 
along the same road it would take twenty-five days to 
pass a fixed point. It may be said here that the number 
of direct roads passing from Germany into France is 
small and that for purposes of invasion the possession 
of Belgium was a strategic necessity. Its occupation 
meant victory or defeat in the great struggle and the 
devil take the consequences. Belgium and France are 
so at one that the French have so trusted to the forts of 
Liege and Namur, which they believed to be impreg- 
nable, that they have done little to fortify their own 
borders in that direction. 

Who the commanding generals of the German army 
are to be has not yet been made public in America. 
Judging by the holders of high positions in peace-time 
they will be Grand Duke Frederick II of Baden, Duke 
Albert of Wiirttemberg, Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria 
and the generals Biilow, Eichhorn, Heeringen and 



THE ARMY G3 

PrittAvitz. Wliether or not the German crown-prince 
will be given a command is doubtful. He is brave and 
dashing but impetuous and unbalanced, and his rela- 
tions with his father have been somewhat strained. I 
am told that at maneuvers he expects far too much from 
his men and horses, though his pleasant manners and his 
joking way make him very popular. He may, of covu'se, 
prove the Frederick the Great of the campaign should 
it last sufficiently long for him to gain the proper ex- 
perience. 



PART III 



THE NAVY 



In 1848 the German Confederation was at war with 
Denmark on account of Schleswig-Holstein. The na- 
tional parliament voted six million thalers for the crea- 
tion of a fleet ; it might as well have voted sixty millions 
as far as the possibility of collecting it in such disordered 
circumstances was concerned. But on June fourth, 
1849, a squadron of three steamships, the BarbarossUj 
the Hainhurg and the Liihech did set out from the 
mouth of the Elbe, with decks cleared for action. The 
admiral was a Saxon, Rudolph Bromme. It was known 
that a Danish corvette was becalmed in the neighborhood 
of Helgoland. She was sighted and some shots had 
already been sent through her rigging, when suddenly 
from another direction, from Helgoland itself, then a 
British possession, a shot was fired. It signified that 
the ships were within the three-mile limit over which then 
and now a state's sovereignty extended, and that Eng- 
land was forbidding the fray. The "fleet" complied 
with the order and Lord Palmerston took occasion to 
send a diplomatic note to tlie German Confederation 

0)4 



THE NAVY 60 

stating that ships had been seen in the North Sea flying 
a black-red-gold flag and conducting themselves as war- 
ships ; that England would not recognize such ships with 
a black-red-gold flag as war-ships, but would treat them, 
if need be, as pirates. 

England has more or less preserved this attitude to 
the present day and has been righteously indignant 
whenever Germany increased her fleet. A first lord of 
the admiralty once publicly declared that Britain's rule 
of the sea was part of the common treasure of mankind 
and that England could never endure that another 
power should be able to weaken her political influence 
by exerting naval pressure. Such a position, he said, 
would unquestionably lead to war. 

The attempts to weld Germany into a nation having 
failed, the fleet was put up at auction and sold in 1852. 
The state of Prussia, however, which was one of the 
purchasers, had by this time started her own fleet and 
soon began to build the harbor in the Jadehuclit, which 
is now called Willi elmsliav en. One of the royal princes, 
Adalbert, was made admiral and furthered the cause of 
the fleet in every way. Himself an intrepid leader, he 
was wounded in an encounter with Morocco pirates, who 
fired on one of the small boats of the Danzig. In 1863, 
however, the fleet consisted of but four corvette cruisers, 
the Arhona, Gazelle and Vineta, which had each twenty- 



66 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

eight cannon, and the Nymphe, which had but seventeen. 
Add to these twenty-one cannon boats, four of which 
carried three cannon, the rest but two. In 1867 the 
Prussian fleet merged in that of the North German 
Confederation, which in turn, in 1871, merged into that 
of the new German Empire. 

In the war with France the German fleet played no 
role whatever, there being but five ironclads in all, two 
of them small coast defenders, to oppose to France's 
fifty-five. There were but one or two insignificant en- 
counters between small single ships — one between the 
Grille and the Hirondelle in the Baltic, and one be- 
tween the Meteor^ whose whole crew numbered sixty- 
three, and the French despatch -boat Bouvet, with 
eighty-three. The two had come upon each other in 
the harbor of Havana and then tried conclusions on the 
high seas. I5iit the German victories on land had been 
so quick and decisive that the fleet as a whole never came 
into action. 

Even the successful outcome of the war did not spur 
Germany on to build up a strong navy. A general, not 
a seaman, was made chief of the admiralty and, al- 
though Von Stosch brought in a building plan accord- 
ing to which the navy, by 1882, would have had four- 
teen large ironclads, seven monitors, twenty cruisers 
and twenty-eight torpedo-boats, it was carried out only 



THE NAVY 67 

in part. Stosch deserves credit, however, for insisting 
that Germany should build all her own ships. The sink- 
ing of the Grosse Kurfilrst in 1879, which was run into 
by one of her own sister ships, was a great calamity for 
the navy, and the loss of her two hundred sixty-five 
officers and men caused wide-spread grief. 

Caprivi, the later chancellor, followed Von Stosch in 
1883 as head of the admiralty. He was conscientious, 
but, it would seem, altogether without fruitful ideas. 
He placed all his hopes in the torpedo-boat, and from 
1883 to 1887 not a single battle-ship was built. It was 
not so much to be credited to Caprivi, but to a young 
officer. Von Tirpitz, now grand admiral and state sec- 
retary for the navy office, that the German torpedo- 
boat fleet became the best in the world. Tirpitz made a 
new weapon of it, one that could be used not merely for 
coast-defense, but also for fighting on the high seas. 
But the fact remains that the torpedo-boat under Ca- 
privi's regime was greatly overestimated and that its 
usefulness has more and more been checked by new in- 
ventions — search-lights, Gatling guns, torpedo-boat- 
destroyers and the like. 

Toward the end of his term indeed Caprivi began to 
see the importance of a strong fleet and the idea gained 
ground that "a navy which has its center of gravity on 
or near shore is not worthy of the name." In 1887 was 



68 GERMAXY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

begun the Kaiser Wilhelm canal between the Baltic and 
the North Sea, which enables the one fleet to operate in 
both waters without fear of being intercepted. Mean- 
while Germany had started on her career as a colonial 
power, having acquired by purchase and by treaty tracts 
in Africa and islands in the Pacific Ocean more than 
twice the size of her possessions in Europe. Some of 
her little cruisers and cannon boats had even seen service 
against unruly natives. The Reichstag, however, showed 
little interest in the government's colonial policy and 
was not to be won for the building of large war-ships. 

A change came soon after the accession of the present 
emperor, William II. One of his first acts was to reor- 
ganize the whole naval system, separating the adminis- 
trative part from the purely military. At present Ad- 
miral von Tirpitz is at the head of the former and Prince 
Henry of Prussia, subject to the emperor's own com- 
mands, of the latter. Four great battle-ships , all of the 
Brandenburg class, were begun in 1889. England re- 
sponded by ordering ten new battle-ships, but in 1890, 
by ceding Helgoland in return for a correction of 
boundaries in East Africa, she gave Germany an ad- 
vantage worth fifty dreadnaughts. And almost before 
there was any tangible fleet at all Germany was at work 
scientifically, learning both by theory and by practise 
how a fleet should be managed and maneuvered. 



THE XAVY 69 

"How few these ships were," writes a vice admiral, "and how 
little in accord with modern warfare on the high seas, we all know. 
Imagination often had to substitute what was lacking. School-ships, 
still with all their old full rigging, represented ironclads ; torpedo- 
boats served as cruisers, and the Mars, built to be an artillery train- 
ing-ship, acted as ilag-ship. In those next few years we went 
through a period which — we can say it without boasting — is unique 
in the history of fleets. Not but that we made mistakes — much that 
then seemed to us indubitably right has since been superseded — but 
the German fleet, wliich had fewer and less available ships than 
many other countries, has outdistanced them all in tactical develop- 
ment. . . . The stake, it is true, became greater as ships repre- 
senting a capital of millions and carrying hundreds of men took the 
place of the little boats, but the method remained the same. Com- 
mander and crew, by progressing from easier to more difficult and 
more warlike maneuvers, achieved that feeling of security which is 
not a foolish scorn of danger but the knowledge of power to cope 
with it. That is the state of mind which makes for success in war 
and wliich enables one to win all by risking all." 

The fleet legislation of 1898 for the first time looked 
ahead and established rules as to the future number of 
ships and the time-limit within which they should be 
built, and also laid down principles as to the tasks that 
the fleet was intended to accomplish. Two squadrons, 
of eight battle-ships each, were to be in constant readi- 
ness and were to have a flag-ship at their head. Six large 
and sixteen small cruisers were to act as scouts, three 
large and ten small cruisers as a "foreign fleet"; two 
battle-ships, three large cruisers and four small ones 
were to form the reserve, and the whole reorganization 



70 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

was to be completed in six years — that is, by 1904. It 
had heretofore been provided that in case of war each 
ship should give up half of its trained men as a nucleus 
for the new crews of the reserve ships. This greatly 
weakened the fighting power of the ships at the crucial 
moment, and the legislation of 1898 abolished the com- 
pulsion for one at least of the two squadrons. 

Between 1898 and 1900 came events which greatly 
disquieted Germany: the Spanish-American and Boer 
Wars and disturbances in Samoa. Off Manila there 
were amenities between the German and American ad- 
mirals which might have ended more creditably for the 
former had he been able to disi^laj^ more force. The 
legislation of 1900 was influenced by all these factors 
and has a wider perspective than any that had gone 
before. The preamble declared that "Germany must 
have a battle-fleet so strong that even for the most pow- 
erful naval opponent a war is connected with such dan- 
gers that that opponent's own position as a power may 
be impaired." And further: "For this purpose it is not 
imperative that the German battle-fleet be as strong as 
that of the greatest maritime power, for, as a rule, a 
great maritime power will not be in a position to concen- 
trate its whole fighting force against us. But even 
though it should succeed in opposing us with greatly 
superior forces the subjection of a strong German fleet 



THE XAVY n 

would so weaken an enemy that, in spite of any victory 
he may win, his fleet will no longer be sufficiently power- 
ful to assure his own predominant position." "For the 
first time," writes Mittler, "the so-called risk idea which 
was henceforth to be a determining factor in our fleet 
development was clearly expressed." 

The legislation of 1900 amounted to a doubling of the 
fleet provided for only two years previously. Seventeen 
battle-ships, four large cruisers and sixteen small cruis- 
ers were to be in constant readiness, while exactly as 
many more ships of each of the three types were to be 
kept, partially manned, in reserve. In 1906, in addition 
to a number of submarines, six cruisers for the "foreign 
squadron" were provided for, and it was voted to raise 
the number of torpedo-boats and also to provide auto- 
matically for their renewal, the life of a torpedo-boat 
being estimated at twelve years. This meant that twelve 
torpedo-boats would have to be built each year. Eng- 
land's example in building dreadnaughts necessitated 
greatly raising the appropriation for battle-ships and 
also influenced the legislation of 1908, by which the 
normal life of a battle-ship was declared reduced from 
twenty-five to twenty years. The legislation of 1912, 
finally, increased the number of active battle-ships by 
eight, of large cruisers by four and of small cruisers by 
six, not to mention that the number of submarines is to 



72 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

be brought up to seventy-two, fifty-four of which are 
to be always ready for service. But as the period for 
finishing all the new ships is 1920 they will play little 
part in the present war. The reserve ships, of course, 
will all now be called into action. 

To resume, then, and to be more specific, the actual 
German fleet, counting ships expected to be ready in the 
course of 1914, numbers thirty-eight ships of the line, 
fourteen armored cruisers, thirty-eight protected cruis- 
ers, two hundred twenty-four tor])edo-boats and thirty 
submarines. There are no torpedo-boat-destroyers as 
in other navies, the small cruisers being supposed to 
take their place. The battle-ships are ranged in classes. 
There are three of the "King class" (the Konig, the 
Grosser KurfUrst and the Marhgraf), which have a 
displacement of nearly 26,000 tons and are equipped 
with every possible modern improvement, such as net 
protection against torpedoes, turbine engines, provision 
for oil-fuel, torpedo tubes, etc. It is from these mon- 
sters, of which each carries ten of the largest guns, not 
to speak of the smaller ones, that we shall probably hear 
most in the course of the war, though not perhaps in the 
beginning, as they are not fully completed. They are 
to be joined in 1915 by a sister-ship, the Kronpriiiz. 

The Konig class is to be larger in dimension, in 
horse-power and in displacement, though not in speed or 




H, M. Ship Seydlitz in Dry-Dock 




Signalinff on Submarine 



THE XAVY 73 

armament than the Kaiser class, of which there are five 
ships: The Kaiser, the Kaiserin, the Friedrich der 
Grosse, the Prinzregent Luitpold and the Konig Al- 
bert. Next come the Helgoland class (Helgoland, Ost- 
friesland, Thiiringen, Oldenburg) and the Nassau class 
{Nassau, Westfalen, Rheinland, Posen) after which, 
with the DeutscJdand class (13,200 tons), we are out of 
the region of the dreadnaughts. 

There is a dreadnaught cruiser, the Derfflinger, just 
ready, with a greater displacement (28,000 tons), and 
of course, with far greater speed than any of the battle- 
ships. Next comes the Seydlitz (25,000 tons), then the 
Moltke and the Goehen (23,000 tons), and the Von der 
Tann (19,500 tons). The Goehen has already been 
practically captured, as has also the Breslau (4,550 
tons) . They are now in the Dardanelles, and the Turk- 
ish government is considering their purchase. Twenty- 
three of the protected cruisers bear the names of Ger- 
man cities (like the Breslau, Colherg, Dresden, Konigs- 
herg), while the rest for the most part have such names 
as the Gazelle, the Medusa, the Niohe, the Undine. 

Some fifteen of the largest and best-known passen- 
ger ships of the Hamburg and Bremen lines were to 
have served as auxiliary cruisers, but a number of these 
now are in foreign ports and far from the needed pro- 
tection of their fleets. It remains to be seen what use 



74 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

will be made of the Imperator, which is still at Cuxhaven 
or Hamburg. 

In concluding our list of ships in the German navy it 
may interest Americans to know that there is one called 
the Alice Roosevelt. It is not likely to influence the 
progress of the war or even to come into action. Its 
special title is Stations jacht, and it is at the service of the 
general inspector of the navy, Prince Henry of Prussia. 

Germany's ally, Austria, although in ]May, 1914, she 
appropriated more than 400,000,000 hronen for her 
fleet, makes at present a very weak showing. She has 
fifteen ships of the line, of which three are dread- 
naughts, two armored cruisers and seven protected 
cruisers. 

England, Germany's chief naval opponent, has sixty- 
three ships of the line as compared to her own thirty- 
eight, and of these twenty-four are dreadnaughts, as 
compared to seventeen. England has forty-four ar- 
mored cruisers, of which ten are dreadnaughts; Ger- 
many has but fourteen armored cruisers, and but five of 
them are dreadnaughts. In protected cruisers the ratio 
is still more in England's favor, while with torpedo- 
boats Germany is comparatively well provided — one 
hundred fifty-four as against one hundred ninety. It 
mav be mentioned here, as a bit of interesting history, 



THE NAVY 75 

that the majority of great naval victories have been won 
over numerically superior fleets. 

France has ten dreadnaught battle-ships, on paper, 
but no dreadnaught cruisers, and is said to have had 
difficulty in officering the ships that she has. Moreover, 
of the ten dreadnauglits six are only what are called 
half-dreadnaughts and only three of the others are ready 
for service. Russia is practically without a fleet, thou-ii 
she has four battle-ships and fourteen cruisers in the 
Baltic and four battle-ships and two cruisers in the 
Black Sea. Next year she expects to have ready for 
use in the Baltic four new dreadnaughts. 

Naval warfare has been so far from our thoughts 
these many years, its terms have become so unfamiliar 
that it is worth dwelling for a while on the difl-erent 
types of ships and showing their special uses and their 
special tasks in battle. 

Most important of all, with their supremacy unas- 
saded by any of the newly invented types, are the bat- 
tle-ships or ships of the line. They are called of the 
line because that is their natural position in battle, the 
position that renders the fire of their guns most effect- 
ive. This does not mean that their bows are to be all in 
a line, though that position may sometimes have to be 
adopted; but rather that they are to string out, one be- 



76 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

hind the other at stated intervals, so as to be able to fire 
a vast broadside often miles in length. It may be that 
the line must be slanting or again that the position 
must be constantly changed as new exigencies arise. 
The ruling idea, of course, is to strike the right bal- 
ance between the amount of surface presented as a 
target for the enemy's guns and the ability to keep up 
the most effective running fire. All this is diligently 
practised in time of peace in the so-called maneuvers. 
The utmost exactness of calculation is required, for the 
nearer together the ships the more effective is their fire ; 
indeed the great distinction between modern naval en- 
counters and those of former times lies in this team 
work, if we may call it so. The great dreadnaughts, 
with their turbine engines and carefully adjusted steer- 
ing apparatus, are much more manageable and can be 
brought much closer to one another than was the case 
with old-fashioned battle-ships. The distance between the 
bow of one ship and the stern of the next one is reckoned 
in practise at a hundred yards or less ; one can see what 
an advantage it is to have the eight ships of a squadron 
all of about the same size and speed. This idea has been 
carried so far in the German fleet that, even after the 
superiority of the turbine engine had been demonstrated 
the ships required to complete a squadron were built in 
the old style. Single encounters like those which make 




For Raisinc: Sunken Submarines 




The Second Squadron Passing the I'riedrichsort Light 




H. M. Cruiser Breslau 




H. M. Royal Yacht Hohenzollern with His Majesty on Board in the Lock at Kiel 



THE XAVY 77 

up such thrilling pages in history are not likely often 
to occur again, and if they do, will not come to board- 
ings and to hand-to-hand conflicts. 

Tlie range at which the great naval battles of the 
future will be fought will be A^ery great, all the way 
up to ten thousand yards. The great guns can easily 
shoot that distance, while a reason for not coming nearer 
until, at least, the heav}^ ammunition is gone, is that at 
that range each fleet will be practically safe from the 
torpedoes of the other. The German fleet often prac- 
tises at that range, firing at a moving target which is 
dragged along by another boat. On each modern gun 
is a telescope, and there are instruments for determining 
the distance at any given moment, as well as compli- 
cated adjustments for sighting and aiming. The pro- 
jectiles used in the biggest guns weigh each nearly a 
ton and cost well up into the thousands, so every pre- 
caution is taken not to waste them. We can no longer 
speak of a cannon-ball, for the modern charges are 
cylindrical, pointed and filled with explosives so as to 
inflict the utmost damage for the money. Experience 
has shown that at very close range they will pass through 
blocks of steel more than a yard thick ! 

The bore of the greatest guns in the German navy has 
hitherto been a little over thirty centimeters, but is fast 
reaching the forty centimeter mark ; the guns themselves 



78 GERMANY'S FIGHTIXG MACHINE 

are from forty-five to fifty-eight feet long and weigh 
correspondingly. The best are from the foundries of 
Krupp, who, when he died, left his daughter the richest 
woman in Germany. The Krupps have a special steel 
of the utmost toughness and resistance. The gun- 
barrel is made of a single block, which is regularly ex- 
cavated or bored; it is then protected by innumerable 
rings, which are put on when red-hot, and sit firmly ever 
after. The "kick" of the gun has been entirely elimi- 
nated by an ingenious contrivance. Altogether the can- 
non of to-day have become so complicated and so per- 
fect as instruments that it takes longer to manufacture 
them than it does to construct the ship, and the English 
navv iJ^ives its orders for them about six months before 
even the keel is laid. And the life of such a gun is short. 
It is said that some of the guns on the new English, 
Japanese and Italian ships will be useless after they 
ha\'« fired eighty shots; on the American, French and 
German after from one hundred and fifty to two hun- 
dred. The difference lies in the construction of the gun- 
barrel, and there are controversies and rivalries over 
which methods are the best, just as there are over almost 
everything else that pertains to warfare: over the best 
shells, the best powder, the best mechanical contrivances 
for loading, for getting the range, etc. Dreadnaughts 
have scarcely vet been tried in actual warfare, and the 



THE NAVY 79 

nation that has made mistakes in theory may live to rue 
them bitterly in practise. 

The guns are placed, two and two, in turrets on the 
battle-ships, and can be turned in any direction; if need 
be they can fire a whole broadside; while, as two turrets 
are elevated above the rest, a volley can be fired of four 
guns direct from the bow or stern. The turrets are ar- 
mored with tough hard steel and their surface is curved 
so that a shot will glance off. The King and the 
Kaiser classes carry ten great guns, the Helgoland 
and Nassau classes even twelve, but the latter are no 
more efi'ective, as they have not the two elevated turrets 
for shooting o^.^er the other guns. Some of the new 
French and American ships are to have three and even 
four guns to a turret, but the German navy is conserva- 
tive enough not to wish to try the experiment. 

Theoretically at least a great dreadnaught is almost 
unsinkable. Xot only is its hull divided into a great 
number of cells and compartments but many of the cells 
themselves are armored, so that even if a torpedo pene- 
trates to them it will not have things all its own way. 
All vulnerable places, too, are heavily armored with 
plates that extend away below the water line ; while the 
powder magazines and torpedo tubes are well down in 
the depths of the ship. 

It is the heavv armament that has conditioned the size 



80 GERMANY'S FIGHTIXG MACHINE 

of the ships, for they have few other advantages than 
the abihty to carry the extra weight, and they have in- 
creased the cost of navies enormously. The appropria- 
tions of eight great powers for 1914-1915 come to not 
far from three bilHon five hundred milhon marks, Eng- 
land leading with more than one billion. And the ex- 
penses do not cease with the building of the ships, for 
docks, dry docks, canals, etc., have to be enlarged ac- 
cordingly. The Kaiser Wilhelm canal, built between 
the years 1887 and 1895, at a cost of one hundred fifty- 
six million marks, had already outgrown its usefulness 
ten years after its opening. Its widening, which will 
not be fully completed until 1915, is to cost two hun- 
dred twenty-three millions in addition. 

We have thus far spoken only of ships of the line, 
and, although we shall have to return to them in a mo- 
ment, a few words must first be said as to the use of the 
other categories of ships in actual warfare. Armored 
cruisers in themselves are nothing new. England has 
forty-four of them, France nineteen, Japan fifteen and 
Germany and the United States each fourteen. But 
great armored battle-cruisers have existed only since 
1907 and are possessed as yet by only three powers: 
England has ten; Germany has, or had, five (for the 
Goehcn is out of the running) , and Japan has two. 

The big battle-cruiser is as long as a battle-ship, or 



THE NAVY 81 

even longer; it, also, is called a dreadnaiight. It has 
guns as large, but fewer of them ; eight instead of ten. 
Where, then, is the difference ? The difference is in the 
lines, which are long and slender, like those of a yacht, 
and in the speed, which is from twenty-eight to thirty 
knots instead of twenty-two or twenty- three. The 
cruiser has been described as a sort of naval cavalry that 
can fly to any weak point of the enemy, can chase a 
single ship or can outflank a line of ships, bring them 
between two fires, thus deciding the battle. The cruis- 
ers can also fight each other. A new instrument of 
war has thus been introduced that may, after all, once 
more make naval contests thrilling and dramatic instead 
of being mere pounding competitions. 

The small cruiser, in contradistinction to the large 
armored one, has but a light iron belt and carries only 
light guns and deck torpedo tubes. Its purpose is not 
to engage in battle, unless it be with a torpedo-boat, but 
rather to avoid it. It combines the qualities of scout 
and of torpedo-boat-destroyer, which latter type is alto- 
gether lacking in the German navy. Its chief quality 
is swiftness, and a swarm of small cruisers accompanies 
the fleet when it puts to sea, darting here and there to 
make sure that none of the much-dreaded little enemies 
is approaching. 

Of large torpedo-boats the German fleet has one hun- 



82 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

dred fifty-four, all of its own special type. The value 
of the type has at times been overestimated, at times 
underestimated, but the recent gains in speed and in sea- 
worthiness have made it no contemptible adversary. 
Practically its only weapon is the torpedo, for project- 
ing which it carries four tubes on deck; its small guns 
are merely for use against other torpedo-boats. Its 
chief defense is its extreme swiftness, for some of the 
boats have a speed of thirty-eight miles an hour. It 
can turn, too, incredibly quickly, for it has a rudder in 
the bow as well as in the stern. It is unarmored, but is 
painted black for its protection. For it is a creature of 
the night, stealing up in the darkness wath its deadly 
weapon and scarcely ever exposing itself to the enemy's 
guns by the light of day. It has one enemy, to be 
dreaded above all others, the search-light. 

There are hundreds of the little black devils in the 
navy, and they have every sort of trick for concealment 
and escape. By running very swiftly they can keep the 
smoke from rising vertically from their funnels and 
thus betraying their presence. They often go forth in 
flotillas and if an enemy start to chase them they scatter, 
having previously arranged where they are to meet 
again. They come bow on to the ship they mean to 
injure, for the distance between them will then increase 
more rapidly. If brought to bay a torpedo-boat turns 




Submarine Fleet in Harbor at Kiel 




Armored Cruiser Moltke 



THE NAVY 83 

its own search-light on the commander of the other ves- 
sel and tries to blind him with its glare. It is a risky 
business, that of torpedo-boat commander, and requires 
men of the very highest training and courage. The 
reason there are such numbers of the little craft is that 
many are sure to go to the bottom in the course of a 
campaign. Germany expects that her flotilla will be of 
great help in a war with England, for when a torpedo 
hits the damage is apt to be severe. Dynamite is mild 
compared to the new melanite and lyddite that are used 
in charging. 

If the torpedo-boat is a fiend that works mainly at 
night, its sister, the submarine, works only by day. If 
the submarine has not, as was at one time expected, com- 
pletely revolutionized naval warfare, it has at least so 
far asserted itself that it can never be left wholly out of 
the reckoning. Its improvement has kept pace with 
that of the torpedo-boat in stability, in size and in man- 
ageableness. The newest boats have a displacement of 
a thousand tons, and long sea voyages are now possible. 
German}^ has far fewer torpedo-boats than has Eng- 
land, but claims that hers are much stronger and much 
better adapted for service in rough weather and on the 
high seas. 

When there is no enemy in the immediate vicinity the 
submarine rides the waves like any other boat; when 



84 GERMANY S FIGHTING MACHINE 

there is danger she dives hke a duck. Just before firing 
her torpedo she comes to the surface for an instant to 
get one last good look. She is helpless at that moment, 
of course, but trusts to not being seen in time. When 
under water her speed is only about ten miles an hour, 
as the pressure is very great; on the surface she can 
travel about sixteen. Her slowness is a disadvantage, 
for she can only lurk for and intercept a fleet, not pur- 
sue and overtake it. She labors under another disad- 
vantage, too, for she has to carry two motors and can 
not use the same one above and under water. Why? 
Because the one is an oil motor and generates gases 
which would be fatal when all outlets are closed. The 
other is run by an electric storage battery, the filling of 
which requires time and patience. 

How can the submarine communicate with its own 
fleet? It has wireless telegraphy and also deep-water 
signals, but these do not work so well as might be de- 
sired. It has one other connection with the visible world 
as wonderful as anything described by Jules Verne in 
his Ttcenti) Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, the peri- 
scope, or literally the "looker round." I can not do bet- 
ter than describe it in the words of a naval officer. Count 
Ernest zu Reventlow : 

Roughly speaking, the apparatus consists in this: If 
the boat is imder water and yet wishes to see what is 



THE NAVY 85 

going on above, it pushes up a long thin pipe until the 
surface is reached and a little beyond. At the farther 
end of this pipe is a contrivance with glass prisms, or 
mirrors and lenses. This throws down the image re- 
flected from the surface of the water, through the ver- 
tical pipe, into the interior of the boat. The image is 
caught on a plate and the commander of the submarine, 
although he may be several yards under water, can see 
everything that is floating and happening on the sur- 
face and consequently can make his attack with the sole 
guidance of this image and steer the boat until it is at 
the right distance for firing the torpedo. 

It sounds like magic, and indeed the witches were not 
in it when it comes to the achievements of modern sci- 
ence. But Reventlow has to confess that in practise the 
periscope is not so wonderful as it sounds in theory. 
The splashing of the salt water, unless the sea be per- 
fectly calm, which it seldom is, soon dims and even 
efl'aces the image. It was long before the inventors 
could bring the periscope to reflect more than a small 
section of the horizon, but that difficulty seems to have 
been overcome. 

It is possible, with map, clock and compass, to take 
reckonings and keep on a course even when deep down 
under water. Deeper than ninety feet the submarine 
seldom goes. It has found a new and unexpected enemy 



86 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

in the air-ship or aeroplane, for it is a well-known fact 
that from a height on a clear day, at least, you can see 
very far into the water. But what, one will ask, can 
the aeroplane do about it even if it sights a submarine 
far down beneath the surface? Projectiles would not 
be likely to do much damage. At the same time it can 
warn ships and can pursue and worry the submarine. 

That the latter is not a perfect instrument goes with- 
out saying; indeed, when it darts about blindly it be- 
comes a menace to its own ships. Its arrangements are 
so complicated, too, with all the letting in and out of 
water, the diving and coming up, the changing of mo- 
tors and providing artificial air that things are very apt 
to go wrong. The service is extremely exhausting for 
the men and extremely dangerous. 

Yet all the same the value of submarines is universally 
acknowledged and every great navy has them. They 
will probably prove useful in planting that new instru- 
ment of destruction, the floating mine, about which a 
few words must be said here: "It is to be presumed," 
writes Reventlow, "that in the next naval war [how lit- 
tle he dreamed in November, 1913, that that war was so 
close at hand!] mines will play an important part not 
merely in coast defense but also in sea fights as a weapon 
with the same justification as artillery and torpedoes and 
that their use will materially influence the tactics to be 




^.:.aM 








A Submarine Flotilla 




Torpedo Boat 




Search Lights 




A Submarine About to Dive 



THE NAVY 87 

emploj^ed." As such a weapon of attack mines were 
first used in the Japanese-Russian War. 

A mine, as the reader probably knows, is a cask filled 
with high explosives and fastened by means of weights 
and anchors so that it floats some feet below the surface. 
JNIines can be planted in fields, as it were, by torpedo- 
boats or submarine and then a hostile fleet can be lured 
or chased in among them. The North Sea, as we know, 
is at present thickly strewn with them and fatal results 
have already been chronicled. Air-ships and aeroplanes 
can help by finding the whereabouts of the hostile fleet 
and designating by wireless the spots where the mines 
should be planted. 

Air-ships and aeroplanes will possibly find their chief 
use as coast-defenders. They need refuges to which 
they can retire, which limits their use on the high seas. 
But along the shore they can scout for hostile ships and 
also can detect submarines and mines. They can throw 
down explosives and, if they are near enough to the 
enemy's harbors, can destroy docks and demoralize ship- 
ping. Already there is talk of specially armored decks 
and of great iron grills for protecting the openings of 
funnels. 



More than six months ago a thoughtful German, 
Rudolf Troetsch, wrote a book called Germany's Fleet 



88 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

in the Decisive Struggle, in which he weighs the differ- 
ent tasks the fleet will be called upon to perform in case 
of war, and comes ever and again to the conclusion that 
a battle on the high seas is the only possible option— a 
battle im grossen Stile, in the grand style. Even if the 
enemy's fleet is not conquered it can be greatly weak- 
ened and strategy and tactics will go far to make up for 
want of numbers. 

Troetsch begins by showing the different methods an 
enemy Avill be likely to pursue ; and one sees throughout 
that he has England in mind. First of all will come — 
as has already happened — the so-called cruiser war or 
attempt to destroy the country's commerce by snapping 
\\\) her merchant ships. This can eventuallj^ end the war 
by the starvation process ; that is, by cutting off all food 
and other supi^lies. According to the Paris interna- 
tional agreement of 1856 there shall be no privateering, 
which means that individuals may not fit out ships and 
take prizes, but does not mean that the property of indi- 
viduals, if they are subjects of one or other of the war- 
ring powers, may not be seized. Prizes of war may 
either be towed into the nearest port or, after the crews 
and passengers have been taken off, may be sent to the 
bottom with all their cargo. To be effective, however, 
this metliod of warfare must be methodically pursued, 
which means regularly employing a force of swift cruis- 



THE NAVY 89 

erSo The method had its warm advocates in naval circles, 
especially in France about thirty years ago. There is 
a strong feeling at present that the game is not worth 
the candle and that there are other tasks for the cruisers 
to perform which are of more importance. For a coun- 
try which has few foreign coaling stations into which 
the prizes can be towed but very little is to be gained; 
while a naval battle is greatly to be preferred to having 
an enemy try these tactics. 

Another method that may be applied against Ger- 
many is the blockading of her North Sea coast. A 
blockade, according to the Paris declaration of 1850 
and again according to the London conference of 1908, 
must be effective in order to be binding ; a country may 
not, in other words, simply declare an enemy's coasts in 
a state of blockade, but must have enough ships there to 
enforce the regulations. A successful blockade hinders 
even neutral ships from landing and is the best way of 
preventing the entry of contraband of war and of para- 
lyzing all commerce. The form of Germany's coast line 
fairly invites to a blockade, much more than do the 
coasts either of England or France. A line drawn from 
Holland to Denmark would form the hypothenuse of a 
triangle including the mouths of Germany's chief rivers, 
her main seaports as well as all her North Sea islands. 
The Baltic, too, could be easily shut off from the ocean, 



90 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

and with the enemy's ships all bottled up there would be 
no fear of a descent on the coasts of England. 

This sounds well in theory, but in practise the dif- 
ficulties will be well-nigh insuperable. Those who know 
the coast will remember the miles and miles of shallows 
— the so-called Wattcnmccr so difficult to navigate. In 
time of war all lighthouses and buoys are removed and, 
if they approach the shore, the English ships will in- 
evitably run aground, while the German torpedo-boats 
and submarines will be in their very element. Floating 
mines, too, will get in their deadly work, as will also the 
strings of fixed mines which are ignited not by percus- 
sion but by means of an electric current controlled from 
the shore. The German fleet can retire well up the 
great streams and menace the enemy there; while it 
must not be forgotten that the great cannon of the coast 
defenses can shoot fifteen kilometers (nine and three- 
eighths miles) or more. Finally the islands in the neigh- 
borhood, notably Borkum and Wangerood, are fortified, 
and last but not least, there is Helgoland far out in the 
sea. A whole fleet could not take this Gibraltar of the 
North. The rocky walls are very hard ; indeed, with true 
German thoroughness, they have been tested to see if 
they would successfully withstand bombardment. Un- 
der their shelter a harbor for torpedo-boats and subma 
rines has been built at a cost of thirty million marks. 



THE NAVY 91 

From here they can issue forth and here, protected from 
afar by the great guns, they can take refuge and form 
new projects. 

Troetsch considers it more than likely that England 
will proceed to a blockade, but a blockade not in the nar- 
row but in a broader sense. One objection to the nar- 
rower blockade would be that her naval bases, necessary 
for repairs, fuel and ammunition, would be very far 
away. But this can be obviated if the blockading line 
begin somewhere between Dover and Calais, extend 
along the east coast of Scotland, with bases at Rosyth 
and Scapa Flow, and end near the southernmost point 
of Norway, Cape Lindesnaes. This would shut every 
exit from the North Sea to the Atlantic and at the same 
time encircle all the exits from the Baltic : the Skager 
Rak and Cattegat and the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal. Here 
England could carry on what is known as an "observa- 
tion blockade," biding her time to fall upon the enemy's 
fleet. 

The great disadvantage is that the blockading line 
will have to be so very long. The surface of the North 
Sea is about equal to that of the whole German Empire, 
and such a line as we have traced would extend for two 
hundred fifty or three hundred miles. It is a question 
if even England's enormous fleet can spare the requisite 
number of ships. Such a blockading fleet consists not 



92 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

only of a long chain of vessels close together but also of 
a supportmg fleet and, behind that, of the real battle 
squadrons. The whole force must be nearly double that 
of the enemy, as it operates on a much broader line. The 
foggy stormy weather that is apt to prevail in the North 
Sea will also render the blockade less efficient. 

Germany is likely to attempt to break it and to bring 
about a great naval battle at the earliest opportunity. 
But that opportunity may not come so very soon. Re- 
ventlow, speaking indeed of a hypothetical war, declares 
that such a blockade may last a year or longero Ger- 
many has too much at stake to risk her small but excel- 
lent fleet before the tactical moment has come. Will 
her Zeppelins help her to victory? That is the question 
that all are asking now. They are but fragile toys in 
a stormy sea, but, with circumstances in their favor, may 
achieve wonderful results. 

When it does come to the battle on the Iiigh seas into 
which Germany will surely force England, we shall see 
modern tactics ]^ut to their supreme test, for only by 
tactical superiority can Germany hope to win. In an 
old-fashioned battle in which the ships rushed at each 
other pellmell, or in one in which the rival fleets simply 
lie to and pound each other she would be sure to lose. A 
modern battle is much more a game of skill in which the 
v^ictory is not to the strongest but to the cleverest. 



THE NAVY 93 

In a modern battle the ships are ever and always 
moving. Not that the maneuvers are necessarily com- 
plicated, but there goes on the whole time a constant 
thrust and parry. There are different kinds of encoun- 
ters. First there is the running fight, in which the two 
fleets, the vessels one behind the other, run in the same 
direction, firing all the while. Here the strength of the 
ships, the power of the guns and the quickness of the 
gunners play the decisive part. The more turrets, fun- 
nels, engine-rooms and stearing gear put out of com- 
mission, so much the better. The so-called passing- 
fight, where the fleets run not in the same but in oppo- 
site directions, is apt to be preferred by a fleet that is 
numerically weaker. The agony is less prolonged and 
escape is easier. Then there is the circular fight, in 
which the fleets are like great serpents trying to catch 
one another's tails. The circular fight can follow directly 
after the passing fight when the fleets have not been 
seriously crippled. 

But the crown and acme of all fleet maneuvers is the 
so-called crossing of the T. 

"The maneuver of the crossing of the T," writes Troetsch, "con- 
sists in endeavoring to bring one's ovi^n line at right angles across the 
head, or also across the tail, of the hostile line — of enfilading it, as 
the expression goes, so that the opposing lines come into the relative 
positions of the two bars of the Latin T. . . . Such a movement 
renders it possible to concentrate the entire fire of one's own broad- 



94 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

sides on the ship that is at the head of the enemy's fleet. In this way 
one increases the eflectiveness of one's own fire to the very highest 
degree, inasmuch as all the shots which go too far to one side will 
strike the hinder ships of the long hostile line. The ships at its 
head must gradually succumb to the concentrated fire^ while one's 
own line is exposed only to the guns in the opponent's bow and to the 
fire of the few guns which can be pointed from the sides at such an 
angle as still to reach the enfilading ships. This position signifies 
for the fleet that succeeds in shoving itself across the head of the 
enemy's line the most eft'ective application of the principle of the 
concentration of power, which is based on the endeavor always to 
bring into play when attacking the enemy a greater number of guns 
than he in his momentar}^ position has at his disposal. If one can 
open fire in this position it may prove of the greatest significance for 
the whole battle. . . . There are cases where the advantage of 
this position is gained by mere chance, as when the two fleets come 
ujDon each other in that formation in thick or foggy weather, . , 
It is difiicult to assume the position of crossing the T when the fight- 
ing is already in progress. . . . 

The fleet against which the crossing of the T is attempted can 
seek to lessen its eff"ect by various counter maneuvers. It can turn in 
the same direction and take a parallel course with the enveloping 
fleet, whereby if it be swift enough it lias the advantage of being on 
the inner or shorter line: the battle then becomes a simple running 
fight, or it can simply turn and follow the tail of the hostile line or 
engage with the head of the line in a passing fight." 

We can even imagine the line of ships, the bow of 
which has been crossed, executing a sort of dance with 
its opponent in order to bring its broadsides into play 
— the first ship turning to the right, the second to the 
left, the third to the right again and so on until all are 
opposite and parallel to the enemy. 



THE NAVY 95 

And so the war is on which brings Germany's fleet 
and army into play — to the last man and to the last gun. 
We have suddenly found ourselves in the midst of a 
struggle which makes even the wars of Napoleon seem 
trifling. 

As many men are now engaged simultaneously as 
were then called out in the course of years. And the 
instruments of death are a hundred times more deadly. 
From the skies above destruction rains down ; from sub- 
terranean forts and from the depths of the sea it wells 
up. The difl*erence between hand labor and machinery 
has been transmitted into terms of killing ; we have arti- 
ficial earthquakes and eruptions. 

How shall we name the war? The War of 1914? But 
it may last on into the next year, and the next and the 
next. As I know Germany she will never now submit 
to being conquered unless the social democrats gain the 
upper hand. And even then I am not sure that the social 
democrats are prepared to draw the last consequences of 
their long agitation against the imperial, or against any 
national government. Our descendants may look back 
on it as the Thousand Years' War, for one fails to see 
how the passions now unchained can ever again be 
calmed. And there are signs that we are at the begin- 
ning of a colossal shoving around of races that will make 
our children mock at the awe with which their fathers 



96 GERMANY'S FIGHTING MACHINE 

read of the so-called wandering of the nations. All the 
Suevi and Allemanni and Goths, Vandals and Visigoths 
that ever overran Gaul would have made but a few corps 
in the great Teuton army that is now pressing into 
France. 

Russia, with her one hundred sixty millions, is likely 
to claim a much vaster influence than she has yet had. 
Napoleon would once have been willing to share Europe 
with Czar Alexander; will some such partition enter 
into the new treaty of peace? Will it perhaps be be- 
tween Teuton and Slav and will England have to move 
to Canada and France to Africa? I can not believe, in 
any case, that Germany will succumb. She is reproached 
now by sentimental ladies with having devoted such 
serious study to the work of destruction. She devotes 
serious study to everything that she attempts. Only re- 
cently I was initiated into the splendid methods by which 
she runs her labor-exchanges and also into the workings 
of her prisons and penitentiaries. Everything is fore- 
seen, everything provided for. And so it is with her 
fighting force. Everj^ single ])roblem is attacked theo- 
retically as well as practically, and in almost every re- 
gard we other nations are but as untrained children to 
her. 

Once more, who is to blame for the horrible war? A 
clever writer, such as we have for detective stories, would 



THE NAVY 97 

have little difficulty in convincingly foisting the guilt 
on each of the great powers in succession. Austria is 
to blame for her ultimatum to Servia, Russia for mo- 
bilizing against Austria, France for entering the con- 
flict when the matter did not concern her at all, Germany 
for demanding Russian demobilization, England for 
stabbing Germany in the back when she was already 
struggling with enemies on either side, Japan for her 
bumptious self-assertion. 

It is the twilight of the gods. Is Germany the Wal- 
halla that is to fall in ruins? Or is she merely about to 
build a Walhalla that shall project over all other politi- 
cal edifices? The moment is a serious one for us Amer- 
icans. Where shall we stand in the new order of things ? 
Will a Japan that has conquered a China, a Russia and 
a Germany submit to American exclusion acts? Her 
fleet already outnumbers ours in ships of all types ex- 
cept ships of the line, and her naval appropriations are 
progressing more steadily than our own. And when 
Japan secures what she wishes from us, China will be 
ready to make the same demands. It is a far cry since 
Austria interpreted the five vowels in her favor: Alles 
Erdreich ist Osterreich unterthan (all earthly kingdoms 
are subject to Austria) . Which will be the next world- 
power? 

THE END 



